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What if your country was at war? Except the enemy was made up of friends and neighbours, even members of your own family. And what if that enemy’s army was camped right outside your door, and refused to let you leave, threatening that if you didn’t surrender, it would fire its guns on you and burn your house to the ground?

That’s exactly what happens to 13-year-old Merriweather Pryce, the rebellious, brave-hearted hero of my new historical adventure story, Rebel Heart.

The book is set during an exciting but very dangerous time in our history known as the English – or British – Civil Wars when King Charles I and his supporters, known as royalist ‘cavaliers’, fought against Parliament and its army of ‘roundheads’ or ‘rebels’. When the story opens, a force of roundhead soldiers is preparing to attack Merri’s family home of Compton Blaize manor. With her father, Sir Richard Pryce, away fighting for the king and only a small troop of men to protect them, Merri fears her stepmother, Lady Ellinor is going to give up the fight before it’s even begun and surrender to the enemy. Determined to rescue Compton Blaize, she disguises herself in boy’s clothes, and with only her pet jackdaw, Merlin, for company, sets off to get help.

But in a land full of enemy soldiers, turncoats and spies, there are dangers at every turn and Merri will need all her wits and courage to save her home and her family ...

I got the first sparks of the idea for Merri’s story when I visited to two very special places – Corfe Castle in Dorset, and Basing House in Hampshire, not far from where I live. They are both ruins now, but at the time of the Civil Wars nearly four hundred years ago, they were grand houses owned by families who, like Merriweather’s, were loyal to the king. Both shared the same fate, coming under attack or ‘siege’ by Parliament’s forces, and once captured, were deliberately ruined or ‘slighted’ to stop them taking part in the war again. But the thing which interested me most of all was learning about the brave women who had led their defence, holding out against the enemy and its guns for weeks on end while their husbands were away fighting.

This was enough to set my story whiskers twitching. After doing more research, I discovered plenty of other examples of courageous lady-defenders on both sides. Also, of other daring women and girls who acted as message-carriers, gold-smugglers and sometimes even as spies, or ‘intelligencers’ as they were called then. And then there were the women who disguised themselves as men and followed the army to be with their husbands, or else to join in the fight as soldiers in their own right. There’s a well-known story that Oliver Cromwell, the famous roundhead general and later Lord Protector, discovered a suspected young ‘she-soldier’ in his troop by asking her to sing.

When I started to cook up the characters – especially Merri and Lady Ellinor – and the plot for my story, how could I resist putting all of these brilliant ingredients into the pot? But I needed a villain too – which is where Abenazar Shine comes in. I won’t say any more about him though – I don’t want to ruin the surprise!

There are two nail-biting battle scenes in the book. The first is the famous, real-life Battle of Naseby, part of the exciting climax to Merri’s desperate mission to find her father and bring him back to defend their home. The second is the battle for Compton Blaize itself. As you might expect of a hero, Merriweather plays a key part in the action. But will the Pryce family motto – ‘Fearless and True’ – and Merri’s brave rebel heart be enough to save the day? You’ll have to read the book to find out!