Start with The Blank Roll: A Kingdom in Revolt — a tense novel of ordinary people, Crown taxation and the first sparks of the Peasants' Revolt.
The gateway novel
A record is never just a record when power is reading it.
The work
England, 1381. The Crown is hungry for money, and the villages are expected to provide it. Again. A tax roll arrives before the revolt. The names written on it will decide who pays, who lies, who survives, and who finally refuses.
Discover the novel →This is not a court history of kings and commanders. It is a village-level story of clerks, widows, labourers, reeves and households forced into the machinery of government.
About the author →Source-led history, documentary notes, podcast work and investigations that separate the record from the legend.
Enter the archive →Behind the stories
Subscribe to Samuel Stephen Chronicles for new historical fiction, behind-the-book research notes, deleted scenes and essays on power, rebellion, war and memory.
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