In addition, Sharon took home the Romantic Times Career Achievement Award for Historical Mysteries in 2001. Sharon’s first notable form of recognition was when The Queen’s Man earned her a nomination for a First Mystery Edgar Award in 1996. She seems to know how to turn historical figures into engaging characters. Sharon’s novels never feel like lectures. Sharon has a way of accurately recreating medieval Europe even while injecting vivid storytelling into the mix.

The author’s books also include conflict either between characters and their family members or characters and their belief systems. She likes delving into the daily existence of her favorite historical figures and determining the sorts of everyday lives they pursued.Ī common trait of Sharon’s books is political tension and power struggles, not to mention war. Sharon Kay Penman does an incredible amount of research for her books. She derives pleasure from reaching into the annals of history and exploring the lives of real historical figures, not only educating her readers about forgotten periods and eras, but also entertaining them. The author has an unrivaled passion for history and medieval times. Sharon Kay Penman is best known for the Welsh Princes Trilogy and the Plantegenet series. Her distress was such that she didn’t write for five years.īut eventually, she got back on the horse, rewrote the book and saw the 900-page novel finally published in 1982. Any author with experience writing lengthy novels can attest to the devastation Sharon Kay Penman felt. The Sunne in Splendour was Sharon’s first novel and it nearly broke her because she wrote four hundred pages of the manuscript only to have it stolen from her car.

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