A MALVERN novelist’s lockdown success has led her to publish her second book.

Eleanor Porter, who last year published The Wheelwright’s Daughter, has just finished her next instalment, The Good Wife.

The book picks up the story of Martha Spicer, heroine of The Wheelwright’s Daughter, after her acquittal from Ludlow Gaol.

Her husband Jacob has been given a position in the stables at Hampton Court Castle near Leominster on the estate of Sir Thomas Coningsby.

Their future seems settled. Even the village is called Hope.

However, when Sir Thomas chooses Jacob to accompany him north Martha discovers she is not so safe as she had thought; and when Jacob does not come home she is thrown on her wits. Is he alive and how can she find him?

Mrs Porter said: “The Good Wife is an adventure story, an Elizabethan road movie that explores Elizabethan England from the depths of Herefordshire to Lancashire and Westmorland.

“The book is about survival and defying convention; about a woman becoming strong in a society that views her as property.

“It’s also about alchemy – which at its heart was a search not only for gold but for spiritual enlightenment.

“Martha teams up with Edward Kelley or Talbot, a real historical figure, famous as the crystal gazer for John Dee, who was Elizabeth I’s astrologer.

“He led a wild, extraordinary life, from humble beginnings in Worcester to becoming a revered alchemist, and a Knight of Bohemia.

“A mysterious figure, he deserves to be more celebrated locally. The Good Wife picks out some of the notorious events of his early life.”

Written during lockdown, the book delights in the landscapes and folklore of the counties of the Marches and Lancashire.

Martha’s journey follows the beautiful Tudor maps of John Speed and the journeys of John Leland, who travelled on horseback through England and Wales in the middle of sixteenth century.

Mrs Porter added: “The past is not a foreign country, as has been said, it’s our own, we walk around in it and the ideas of the past, such as alchemy, still have a great deal to teach us.”

For more information about the book and its author, go to www.boldwoodbooks.com/book/good-wife/