Prue Batten

ALLi Author Member

Location: Australia & New Zealand

Genres: Fantasy/SciFi/Speculative, Historical Fiction, Children's general

Skills: Writing Workshop, Self-publishing Workshop/Training, Press/Media Interview

A former journalist from Australia who graduated with majors in history and politics, Prue is now a cross genre writer who is also a farmer, dog owner, gardener and embroiderer.

It was inevitable that she become an independent writer simply because she loves being at the cutting edge of something and together with many other ‘indies’, she claims being at the forefront of the New Age of Writing and Publishing is like being a sea captain in the Age of Exploration. Prue has won gold and silver medals and honourable mentions for her novels and almost all have ranked entirely unbroken in the UK with Amazon's Top 100 for their entire published lives.
At ground level, she loves wine, chocolate and cooking cakes and biscuits. She messes about in her gardens, dirt under fingernails and a plant catalogue alongside. She loves stitching to wind down and she walks with her beloved Jack Russell on the wild and beautiful coastlines of Tasmania.

Prue Batten's books

The Stumpwork Robe - Book One of The Chronicles of Erie

The first book in the quartet of The Chronicles of Eirie, an historical fantasy:

A tragedy to rival Romeo and Juliet hidden beneath the embroidery of a rare gown.
If the writer is discovered, she will be killed.
In a world eerily like our own, where enchanted Others weave through the weft of life, Adelina the Traveller condemns her gaoler to a death sentence as she stitches a bloody treasure hunt across a magnificent garment.
This is the magick of The Stumpwork Robe...

The Last Stitch - Book Two of The Chronicles of Eirie

The second book in the quartet of The Chronicles of Eirie:

A secret story that is tragic and shocking in its scope.
A story of revenge, of friendships lost, of love and the cruel machinations of enchanted Others who weave in and out of mortal lives like a needle through fabric.
Considered to be a cross between Neil Gaiman's Stardust and John Crowley's Little Big, this is dark side of the Fey, a side that gives a new meaning to the word 'fairytale'.

A Thousand Glass Flowers - Book Three of The Chronicles of Eirie

The third novel in the quartet of The Chronicles of Eirie, a historical fantasy series and winner of a silver medallion with Readers' Favorites in the USA.

Two people- one an extraordinary young woman and an embittered immortal man. Both seeking life-shattering magick.
In a quest through a world where Others lace their way in and out of the lives of mortals, this is a story of legend, love, and clashing ideals. A story of murder, regret and revenge, a story that journeys across a world too hauntingly like our own.

The Shifu Cloth - Book Four of The Chronicles of Eirie

The final novel in the quartet of The Chronicles of Eirie, the historical fantasy series.

In a world where Others play with mortal lives, in a hidden province that survives on the backs of abducted slaves, Isabella, one of those stolen folk, sends a message woven into rare cloth made of paper and silk, in the vain hope that her cousin will find it, decipher it and rescue her.
For cousin Nicholas, with whose life the Fates have been playing, only time will tell if he shall find her and whether what makes a curse does indeed break a curse.

Gisborne: Book of Pawns - Book One of The Gisborne Saga

The first in the historical fiction trilogy of The Gisborne Saga:
In a story where status means power and survival depends on how the game is played, two people, one a squire wronged in life and one a noblewoman, are drawn together by lust and a lost inheritance in twelfth century England. Guy of Gisborne is a man with secrets, Ysabel of Moncrieff, a naive and opinionated noblewoman whose world comes tumbling down on the death of her mother.
Gisborne is ordered to Aquitaine to escort the young woman home to attend to her grieving father and whilst travelling, she discovers Gisborne's secrets are not just connected with his family but with the throne of England.
And with revenge.
Suddenly this overprotected woman is confronted with the fact that history can be shaped unconscionably by those in power and that she and Gisborne could lose their lives.

A gold medallion winner with Indie Book Readers' Appreciation Group, highly commended in 2012 Golden Claddagh Awards, an honourable mention in the Readers' Favorite Awards and with a five star rating with Reader's Favorites, Gisborne: Book of Pawns continues to rank unbroken in Amazon's Top 100 for biographical fiction within the UK.

Gisborne: Book of Knights - Book Two of the Gisborne Saga

The second in the historical fiction trilogy, The Gisborne Saga:

Once Lady Ysabel Ce Courcey had thought that if she had been a trobairitz, she might have written a song about herself - her courage in the face of adversity that would have had the men and women in any noble hall sighing as they listened.
Now, on the eve of the Third Crusade, the denouement of the ballad is beginning.
Ysabel races across the waters of the Middle Sea to seek out Sir Guy of Gisborne because she has vital information that could save a king.
But above all, she longs to tell the wronged knight she values him and will stand back to back with him in a vengeful battle that could threaten all their lives

Gisborne: Book of Kings - Book Three of The Gisborne Saga

The third and final novel in the historical fiction trilogy, The Gisborne Saga:
Gisborne, spymaster and valued knight of Richard Lionheart, is forced into a fierce duel in which his wife and son are thrust round the board in a brutal game of revenge.
Is it the Knights Templar who seek to avenge their own? Or is it Eleanor of Aquitaine who claims Gisborne is a traitor to England?
Or is it someone from Gisborne's own cadre?
Trust is the only commodity of any value at a time when life could end with the flight of an arrow, but can Gisborne be trusted enough and will his wife and son survive his obsession?

Tobias - Book One of The Triptych Chronicle

Byzantium stretches a weakening grip across Eastern Europe, trying in vain to hold onto all that has made it an empire. Tyrian purple, the unique dye that denotes its power, is held under close guard by the imperial house.
However a Jewish merchant from Venice has sourced an illegal supply and Tobias the dwarf minstrel and his twin brother, Tomas, begin a dangerous journey to retrieve the purple and deliver it into the merchant’s eager hands.
But is this supply as secret as they had hoped?
Trade is cut throat, men are expendable, money is power and Constantinople provides the exotic backdrop during a time of scimitars and shadows.
This is Tobias – the story of a minstrel and a broken life…

Semi-finalist in M.m.Bennetts Award for Historical Fiction (UK) - 2016
'Authentic characters and a twisting plot move this tale to a gripping end.' Christian Cameron, author of The Chivalry Series
'Although the time and the place of the story is very different, there was something ... that reminded me of the great Patrick O'Brian. For historical fiction, there is really no greater praise.' Matthew Harffy - The Bernicia Chronicles.
‘A powerful tale of violence, treachery, and intrigue, set in the cut-throat world of medieval trade.’ Ann Swinfen, author of The Chronicles of Christoval Alvarez.
‘An atmospheric journey through the seedy underbelly of medieval Europe.’ SJA Turney, author of Marius’s Mules.

Guillaume - Book Two of The Triptych Chronicle

The Church – powerful and moneyed.
The Heretics – zealous and poor.
Lyon – a city that might claim to cast the seeds of reformed thinking upon the world.
Guillaume of Anjou, formerly an archer fighting with other Angevins in the Third Crusade, is now the manager of a successful merchant house. In his new position, he unwittingly steps into and out of the shadowed world of trade and secrets in Lyon.
Guillaume carries the weight of a book in his hands – a book that may well light the flame of the greatest philosophical and spiritual change Europe will experience so that word and sword will cut a swathe through the fabric of life in Lyon.
But he has also made an enemy who wants nothing more than revenge.
He will fight for his life…

"With her customary elegant use of language, Prue Batten plunges us effortlessly into the mercantile houses, twisted alleys and secret shadowy tunnels of medieval Europe. Guillaume is a riveting tale of twelfth century trade, treachery and intrigue." Matthew Harffy, bestselling author of The Bernicia Chronicles.
"This is for readers who love the historical fiction of writers such as Wendy Dunn, but yearn for the adventure of an earlier period and the excitement and mystery of ordinary people tangled in dangerous politics." Gillian Polack, bestselling author of The Middle Ages Unlocked

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