Rosemary Hawley Jarman

Best selling author both in the U.K. and the U.S.A., Rosemary Hawley Jarman was born in Worcester April 27th. She was educated first at Saint Mary’s Convent and then at The Alice Ottley School, leaving at eighteen to study singing in London for the next three years, having developed a fine soprano voice. Family circumstances prevented her from continuing in this direction and she worked for a time in local government. She was married to David Jarman in 1958 and divorced amicably in 1970. She lived most of her time in Worcestershire at Callow End, between Worcester and Upton on Severn.

She began to write for pleasure, and followed a very real and valid obsession with the character of King Richard III (1452-1485 – reigned 1483-85). With no thought of publication she completed a 228,000 word novel showing the King in his true colours, away from Tudor and Shakespearian propaganda. The book was taken up almost accidentally by an agent, and within six weeks a contract for publication and four other novels was signed with William Collins Publishers, (now Harper Collins). The first novel WE SPEAK NO TREASON was awarded The Silver Quill, a prestigious Author’s Club Award, and sold out its first print of 30,000 copies within seven days.

All her novels were subsequently published by Collins and Little, Brown, Boston, U.S.A. There were many excellent reviews, some of which are shown elsewhere on this site. The other novels are THE KING’S GREY MARE (1972), which was the story of Elizabeth Woodville, Queen to Edward Fourth.

CROWN IN CANDLELIGHT (1978) tells the story of Katherine of Valois, Henry V’s Queen – the wars between England and France, and the beginning of the Tudor dynasty.

The fourth novel THE COURTS OF ILLUSION (1983) tells the story of the young man styling himself Perkin Warbeck, one of the “princes in the Tower.”

WE SPEAK NO TREASON was serialized in Australia in “Woman’s Day.” All these novels were paperbacked several times by Fontana, Corgi, World Books, and Sphere. WE SPEAK NO TREASON (1971) was reprinted in 1983 and all four novels were re-issued in the U.S.A. in 2000 as Book of the Month Club choices.

The first three novels were published by Verlag Fritz Molden and Universitas Verlag.

CRISPIN’S DAY was published by Collins and Little, Brown in 1978. This is an illustrated non-fiction book about the battle of Agincourt.

Three of her short stories were published in THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF HISTORICAL EROTICA (1999). The author has had short stories published in many magazines in the U.K. and France.

“The Mists of Melusine (Daw Books) was published in 1996. AI NO CORRIDA – a scholarly dissertation on the film – was published in EROS IN HELL (Creation Books 1998).

The author has been a member of the Society of Authors since 1970. She has been dubbed “A Daughter of Mark Twain” by the Samuel Clemens Society in the U.S.A. for her services to literature.

Rosemary Hawley Jarman lived with the prize-winning author R. T. Plumb for eighteen years in a beautiful West Wales cottage. They married in September 2002, and sadly Roy died of cancer in October 2003. R. T. Plumb won the New Fiction Prize in 1977 for A PEBBLE FROM ROME and wrote the sequel A HOUSE CALLED MADRID which was published in 1980 and wrote B.B.C. Morning Story for years.

November 1, 2009, is publication date for the expanded edition of THE CAPTAIN’S WITCH, Jarman’s first fantasy, by Norilana Books. It has been called “one of the greatest dark fantasies ever written – in any genre” by world renowned fantasy author Tanith Lee. Jarman (now Mrs. Plumb) is working on a sequel to THE CAPTAIN’S WITCH.

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