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This page lists novels, short story collections and non-fiction by Diana Norman. Novels published using the pen name Ariana Franklin are also included.

Cover images are, when possible, of the first UK edition and a recent paperback or digital edition.

By Diana Norman:
- novels, story collections
- Ariana Franklin novels
- non-fiction

Fitzempress' Law

Diana Norman

1980

King of the Last Days

Diana Norman

1981

The Morning Gift

Diana Norman

1985

"As the terrible civil war between King Stephen and Empress Matilda in the 1140s tears England apart, Matilda de Risle has to fight for her land, her son's safety - and her own life. The Morning Gift is set at a time of barbarous civil war against the background of the scents of the Fens in all seasons - and is a heart wrenching story of survival and love."

Daughter of Lîr

Diana Norman

1988

A novel of medieval Ireland.

Pirate Queen

Diana Norman

1991

"THE PIRATE QUEEN is the powerful story of a woman and a country fighting for the freedom that is rightfully theirs, set against the vivid and colourful background of the Elizabethan age."

The Vizard Mask

Diana Norman

1994

"In a London devastated by the Great Plague, a Puritan girl and a young female spy meet in a debtor's prison, from which the common way out is harlotry. Using their wits, they become free only to become embroiled in the sexual intrigue, corruption and cloak-and-dagger of Charles II's court."

Shores of Darkness

Diana Norman

1996

"A spectacular weaving of 18th-century fable, history and fiction! Martin Millet came home from the war in Flanders one summer day in 1706 to find his Aunt Effie murdered, his friend Daniel Defoe embroiled in espionage, and himself responsible for Bratchet, his aunt's female servant, whose life is also threatened. Instead of settling on a small estate, as he had hoped, Martin must embark on a seven-year odyssey which will lead him, Bratchet and a mysterious Highlander from London's stews back to the battlefields of Flanders, the court of the Sun King, the perils of piracy on the high seas and the horrors of Jamaica's sugar plantations. Yet did they but know it, the answer to Effie's death, Bratchet's safety and Defoe's commission lies closer to home - in the apartments of Queen Anne, dying with no Protestant heir in view."

Blood Royal

Diana Norman

1998

"Forced by Sir Robert Walpole into a distasteful marriage and then ruined by her husband's speculation in the South Sea Bubble, Lady Cecily Fitzhenry vows revenge on the Prime Minister and all his myrmidons - including the creaking Hanoverian court and an obscure Scottish lawyer, Archibald Cameron. Nothing if not spirited, Lady Cecily turns her hand to highway robbery and spying while transforming her sole remaining asset, an old tavern on the Great North Road, into a great coaching inn...and eventually Lady Cecily salvages her country and herself in ways she had never imagined."

A Catch of Consequence

Diana Norman

2002

A Makepeace Hedley novel.

"Makepeace Burke serves Patriots at her late father's tavern on the Boston waterfront in 1765 and hates the redcoats with a vengeance. But even she can't watch an angry mob drown an Englishman. She rescues him and nurses him back to health-and falls in love. In Patriot Boston, hers is an unforgivable sin-made worse by the fact that her Englishman turns out be the aristocratic Sir Philip Dapifer. Philip must smuggle Makepeace aboard a ship bound for London and save her life at the expense of the world she knows. Rich in period detail, bringing the years of colonial rebellion to vivid life, A Catch of Consequence is a stylish novel of Boston and England, and of a woman who defies convention in both worlds."

Taking Liberties

Diana Norman

2003

A Makepeace Hedley novel.

"Makepeace Hedley is frantic when she learns that her young daughter, sailing home to England from the rebelling American colonies, has been taken prisoner by the British. With her usual determination, Makepeace sets out for Plymouth to rescue her child. And when Countess Diana Stacpoole is asked by an American friend to help his son, also a British prisoner, Diana responds quickly and leaves her genteel past behind. In the chaos of wartime Plymouth the two women face social outrage, public scandal, and even arrest. Amidst docks and prisons, government bureaucracy and brothels, they forge an unlikely and unshakable friendship. And in freeing others, they discover their own splendid liberty."

The Sparks Fly Upward

Diana Norman

2006

A Makepeace Hedley novel.

"Few of those Philippa loves in London return her affection. Not the love of her life, who has a new bride. Not even her widowed mother, Makepeace Burke. So Philippa decides on a marriage of convenience to a prudish, if kind, man. Across the Channel in France, the Reign of Terror is causing the beheading of thousands from the French nobility. Among those in danger is Philippa’s friend, the Marquis de Condorcet. Not only has Philippa the means of rescuing him from the guillotine, she’s got the courage. And as fate would have it, Philippa will find love where she least expects it - while staring death in the face."

City of Shadows

Ariana Franklin

2006

" A cultured city scarred by war. . . . An eastern émigré with scars and secrets of her own. . . . A young woman claiming to be a Russian grand duchess. . . . A brazen killer, as vicious as he is clever. . . . A detective driven by decency and the desire for justice. . . . A nightmare political movement steadily gaining power. . . . This is 1922 Berlin. One of the troubled city's growing number of refugees, Esther Solomonova survives by working as secretary to the charming, unscrupulous cabaret owner 'Prince' Nick, and she's being drawn against her will into his scheme to pass a young asylum patient off as Anastasia, the last surviving heir to the murdered czar of all Russia. But their found 'princess', Anna Anderson, fears that she's being hunted—and this may turn out to be more than paranoia when innocent people all around her begin to die."

Mistress of the Art of Death

Ariana Franklin

2007

An Adelia Aguilar novel.

"Adelia Aguilar is a rare thing in medieval Europe - a woman who has trained as a doctor. Her speciality is the study of corpses, a skill that must be concealed if she is to avoid accusations of witchcraft. But in Cambridge a child has been murdered, others are disappearing, and King Henry has called upon a renowned Italian investigator to find the killer - fast. What the king gets is Adelia, his very own Mistress of the Art of Death. The investigation takes Adelia deep into Cambridge; its castle and convents, and streets teeming with life. And it is here that she attracts the attention of a murderer who is prepared to kill again."

The Death Maze

Ariana Franklin

2008

An Adelia Aguilar novel.

Published as The Serpents Tale in the US.

"Henry II's favourite mistress, Rosamund Clifford, has been poisoned - and, rumour says, by his jealous wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine. If Henry believes the stories, England will be torn apart as King battles Queen. In a race against time to prove Eleanor's innocence, and with a dangerous assassin on the loose, Adelia has never faced greater danger. The armies that might cause civil war lie behind her. The icy winds of a dreadful winter blow around her. And ahead she must brave the thorns of the impenetrable labyrinth that surrounds Fair Rosamund's tower, and decipher the mystery of the dead woman who lies frozen within."

Relics of the Dead

Ariana Franklin

2009

An Adelia Aguilar novel.

Published as Grave Goods in the US.

"The monks of Glastonbury have discovered two strange skeletons buried in their graveyard - one is tall, the other small and delicate. Are these the remains of King Arthur and Guinevere? King Henry II, on hearing of the discovery, demands evidence that the legendary Arthur is dead in order to stop his belligerent Welsh subjects believing that their Once and Future King will return to lead them against him. And it is his Mistress of the Art of Death, Adelia Aguilar, who he calls upon to examine the bones. But someone doesn't want the skeletons identified - and is prepared to kill in order to prevent it."

A Murderous Procession

Ariana Franklin

2010

Subsequently published as The Assassin's Prayer.

An Adelia Aguilar novel.

"The King of England has ordered his Mistress of the Art of Death - anatomist and doctor Adelia Aguilar - to accompany 10-year-old Princess Joanna on her thousand-mile journey to marry the King of Sicily. They must take with them the legendary sword Excalibur. And so Adelia sets sail with the golden princess and her lavish procession of nobles, musicians, servants, laundresses, grooms, luggage and treasure. But when members of the procession begin to die and it looks as though Adelia is to blame, there are dangerous accusations of witchcraft. Meanwhile one traveller, armed with a brilliant disguise and a personal vendetta, has been watching Adelia all too closely. He wants Adelia dead . . . but he wants her to suffer first."

Winter Siege

Ariana Franklin & Samantha Norman

2014

The unfinished manuscript of this novel was completed for publication by the authors daughter Samantha Norman. Published as The Siege Winter in the US.

"1141. England is engulfed in war as King Stephen and his cousin, the Empress Matilda, vie for the crown. In this dangerous world, not even Emma, an eleven-year-old peasant, is safe. A depraved monk obsessed with redheads kidnaps the ginger-haired girl from her village and leaves her for dead. When an archer for hire named Gwyl finds her, she has no memory of her previous life. Unable to abandon her, Gwyl takes the girl with him, dressing her as a boy, giving her a new name - Penda - and teaching her to use a bow. Gwyl and Penda make their way to Kenilworth, a small but strategically important fortress that belongs to fifteen-year-old Maud. Newly wedded to a boorish and much older husband after her father’s death, the fierce and determined young chatelaine tempts fate and Stephen’s murderous wrath when she gives shelter to the empress. Aided by a garrison of mercenaries, including Gwyl and his odd red-headed apprentice, Maud will stave off Stephen’s siege for a long, brutal winter that will bring a host of visitors to Kenilworth - kings, soldiers . . . and a sinister monk with deadly business to finish."

The Stately Ghosts of England

Diana Norman

1965

"The author accompanies known ghost hunter Tom Corbett on a round of visits to eleven English country houses, each with its own ghost. The houses include Longleat, Littlecote, Woburn Abbey, Salisbury Hall, Sawston Hall, Camfield Place & Buriton Manor, Penfound Manor, West Wycombe Park, Brede, Burford Priory, and Beaulieu."

Road from Singapore

Diana Norman

1971

"The story of a young R.A.F. corporal who incredibly survived the horrors of a Japanese prison camp. He turned his insight into imprisonment towards helping to provide 'half-way houses' in which ex-criminals can adjust to society."

Terrible Beauty: Life of Constance Markievicz, 1868–1927

Diana Norman

1987