Jeremy Clayden

Poppy is 13 years old, studying in a secondary school in Surrey. She was inspired by Hampton Court from her first visit, at age 5, and the re-enactments of the various stories of Henry VIII, his wives and associated themes of Tudor history. She developed a further interest in Georgian History at Kensington Palace and the Tower of London.

Since the age of five, she has been going to one of the four Historic Royal Palaces on a regular basis and has read a number of books on history. Jeremy is a Chartered Surveyor of some 40 years' standing and initially developed an interest in history through the historic houses he surveyed.

Having spent the past nine years taking Poppy to the various palaces and pursuing her interest, he started reading about the Tudor era, in hope that he could answer Poppy's questions. This sparked an idea in Poppy's head, and they researched the book together, and from a small acorn, a sapling oak was born - this book.