Exclusive interview with author Nancy Bilyeau and a review of her novel about a plot against the king of England
RATING: 4 Stars
By Gabrielle Pantera
“I read a little bit about prophecy and how it took off like wildfire during the reign of Henry VIII,” says The Chalice author Nancy Bilyeau. “It was a craze of passing around these mystical predictions into the future. I decided to make this the structure of The Chalice. My character is drawn into a very dark prophecy.”
This is an engrossing ready for those who enjoy stories about Tudor England. There is romance, but it doesn’t overpower the main plot, and the historical facts are woven into the story showing the religious upheaval during the period.
Author Nancy Bilyeau excels at showing the growth of Joanna and the other characters. That Joanna is indecisive at times is believable. You wonder what you would do in the same situation. The story moves between the life Joanna wants to live and the one that fate has dealt her. The Chalice is the second novel in the series. Bilyeau’s first book, The Crown, is about Joanna trying to find the Saxon crown of Athelstan.
Joanna Stafford is forced from the Dartford Priory when Henry the VIII dissolves the churches, monasteries and priories. He left the Roman Catholic Church to form the Church of England to marry Anne Bolen after the Pope refused to grant an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. After settling in the town of Dartford Joanna seeks new meaning for her life. As a child Joanna’s mother took her to see Sister Elizabeth Barton who was known as a seer of the future. Joanna is terrified by Sister Elizabeth’s predictions and vows to never see another seer or prophet. Joanna is drawn into a plot against King Henry VIII. Can she figure out the right thing to do before it’s to late?
“As soon as I sold The Crown to Touchstone/Simon&Schuster I started to think about what happens next in the life of my main character, Sister Joanna Stafford,” says Bilyeau. “I had an 18-month wait to be published, so I decided to write the second book then. I left my job as deputy editor of InStyle magazine and wrote The Chalice.” Bilyeau is now executive editor of the magazine DuJour.
“A real Dominican nun from an enclosed order in New Jersey emailed me after she read The Crown,” says Bilyeau. “I went to see her at her monastery. There is a special room for outsider visits, with a divider in the middle. I really liked her, we talked about many things while eating cookies and drinking tea. She read The Chalice for accuracy in manuscript form.”
For research, Bilyeau read a great deal about the late 1530s in not only England but all of Western Europe. “This was a rare time when France and Spain were allies,” says Bilyeau. “The Pope was exhorting them to invade England and depose Henry VIII. Of course, this was an expensive and dangerous venture, to invade a well-defended island kingdom…as Phillip of Spain would discover when he actually tried decades later. Henry VIII spent a great deal of money preparing for war. This is why he married a German for his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves.”
The Crown, Bilyeau’s first novel, was on the short list of the Ellis Peters Historical Dagger Award from the Crime Writers’ Association in England. The Crown has been optioned by an independent producer who is looking for financing. “There is a handsome young English actor reading The Crown and The Chalice right now,” says Bilyeau, “but I can’t say who.”
Next will be the third book in the series, The Covenant. That story takes Joanna Stafford into the heart of the court of Henry VIII.
Bilyeau was born in Chicago but lives in New York City. She is descended from Pierre Billiou, a French Huguenot who came to America in 1661. His stone house is on the national register.
The Chalice: A Novel by Nancy Bilyeau. Hardcover: 496 pages, Publisher: Touchstone; First Edition edition (March 5, 2013). Language: English, ISBN: 9781476708652 $26.99
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