Roberta Gellis comments:

Perhaps in reaction against the cynical attitudes and impersonal horrors perpetrated by humankind on humankind, I have always been fascinated by the past. In mediaeval times, there was a passionate belief in honour, truth, courage, and loyalty. This is not to say that I think men and women at that time were different or better; they were not. However, when they diverged from the path, when they were dishonourable or cowardly, they knew they had done wrong; they did not tell themselves that `everybody does it'. And, although cruelty and slaughter were as rife then as now, one at least had to face one's victim; there were no bombs that killed faceless thousands impersonally.

The combination of these high standards and my awareness that people are people in any place or time has led me to attempt to present the social and political history of the mediaeval period, especially mediaeval England, in human terms. In any time the two great desires of human beings are for love and power. Thus, I try to weave together a strong love story and the political events, showing the latter through the eyes of the people affected. Most of my books are in continuing series, which permits me to give a chronological history not only of the nation but also of a family.

`The Roselynde Chronicles', for example, begin with the young heiress, Alinor of Roselynde, and detail, through her two marriages, the reign of Richard the Lionhearted and the early years of King John. In Joanna I deal with the marriage of Alinor's daughter and the last four years of John's reign, showing how Joanna's marriage increased both the power and the responsibilities of the family. The spread of influence of the Roselynde clan is increased still further in Volume 4 of the Chronicles, when Alinor's eldest son marries another heiress, twice widowed. Through all the books I attempt to show the conditions, both physical and social, in which these people lived. Moreover, I try to present events as these people saw and felt them by the use of chronicles written at the time rather than by the use of modern history books, although I also consult modern texts. Historical events and historical personages are presented as accurately as possible, although the central characters of my books are almost always fictional.

However, I do not want any reader to believe that I am writing historical texts. To my characters, as to any human...