Ally Sherrick

About Author

Ally Sherrick writes books about how people lived in the past and her latest adventure, Rebel Heart, is set during the English Civil War.

Ally was a slow starter when it came to reading, but once words began to 'click', she was a confirmed bookworm. After a degree in Medieval History from Newcastle University, she went on to study an MA in Writing for Children at the University of Winchester. Ally is a staunch supporter of libraries and facilitating children's reading.

She is married and lives with her husband and assorted garden wildlife in Farnham, Surrey.

Interview

Ally Sherrick explores the English Civil War in Rebel Heart (Chicken House Books)

March 2025

Ally Sherrick steps back in time to the English Civil War in Rebel Heart, her latest historical fiction adventure. Merriweather's family supports the king, and when their home is besieged and threatened by Parliamentary forces, she sets off to find her father and to seek help to save their home.

Author Ally Sherrick tells ReadingZone what inspired her new book, how she researched the Civil War, and how schools might want to use Rebel Heart in the classroom.

Review: 'Rebel Heart is historical fiction at its finest. Full of action and adventure, the story is also rich in the level of detail which creates a sense of atmosphere and period so essential for a story of this kind.' Read a chapter from Rebel Heart.

Q&A with Ally Sherrick, introducing Rebel Heart

"When I visit schools, I introduce myself as a children's author and time-traveller."

1. Can you tell us a little about yourself and your fascination with history and the past, and when it all began?

When I visit schools, I introduce myself as a children's author and time-traveller. The laws of physics say that time-travel is impossible. But, as I explain to my audience, there really is a way to travel back in time, by stepping inside the time-machine in your head, otherwise known as your imagination!

I caught the time-travelling bug from my dad. An evacuee during the Second World War, he loved sharing tales of his adventures in rural Pembrokeshire and Blitz-torn London with me and my little sister. He also brought history to life for us on countless holiday expeditions to ruined castles and abbeys. For him, the past was full of fascinating stories just waiting to be told. And that's what I think too.

2. What first drew you to sharing your love of history with children through writing historical fiction, and why do you feel it's important to share stories about our past with children? Do any of your books to date stand out for you for any reason?

I studied history at school and then as part of my degree. I was lucky enough to be blessed with several great teachers, but the focus was so often on kings and queens and the 'higher-uppers' - the ones controlling the narrative. I wanted to know what the ordinary folk got up to - and not just the grown-ups, the children as well. I thought young readers would be keen to find this out too.

For me a big part of being better able to tackle and overcome the challenges we're faced with today, and in the future too, comes from developing an understanding of the way people lived and dealt with similar problems in the past. I think stories can really help with this, encouraging you to empathise and put yourself in the shoes of others in a way that history text-books can't.

All of my books feature 'outsider' characters who must try and make sense of the alien world they find themselves plunged into. This is particularly true of my latest story, Rebel Heart, in which my hero, Merriweather Pryce's mission to save her family home pitches her into a land turned upside down by war and where it's hard to know who to trust. There are some striking parallels between those times and our own, but I hope the words of the family motto Merri uses as a touchstone - Fearless and True - might offer some inspiration for young readers starting out on their own journeys today.

What are your top tips for setting a story in the past?
- Have a passion for the time and place your story is set in
- Research it well, but not so that you never get around to writing your own story!
- Have fun exploiting the gaps in historical knowledge to make your story as compelling as it can be.

3. Can you tell us a little more about your new book, Rebel Heart, about and why did you want to look at this period in our history, the English Civil War?

The action opens in June 1645, nearly three years into a bitter civil war that has divided the country. Merriweather Pryce, daughter of a Royalist nobleman away fighting for King Charles I, wakes up one day to find an army of enemy Roundheads camped at the front gates of Compton Blaize, her family's home. Fearing that her stepmother, Lady Ellinor is about to surrender, Merri disguises herself as a boy and with only her pet jackdaw Merlin for company, sets out to get help. But in a land full of enemy soldiers, turncoats and spies, as she soon discovers, she's going to need all her wits and courage just to survive.

I studied the English Civil War - now more commonly known as the British Civil Wars - for 'A' level. But it was a visit to the ruins of Corfe Castle in Dorset a few years ago that first sparked the idea for the story. During the wars, the castle, held by the Royalist, Sir John Bankes, was besieged by Parliament's army. While Sir John was off fighting for the king, his wife, Lady Mary Bankes, held out with her young daughters and a tiny garrison of men for many weeks until the siege was eventually lifted by a force of Royalist troops. When I started to research things in more detail, I discovered that there were many more examples of brave women defenders on both sides. And also, cases of women acting as 'intelligencers' or spies and some even dressing as soldiers to join the fight. All of them flying in the face of what women - famously referred to as 'the weaker vessel' - were normally expected to do in those times.

My story is set in the week running up to the most pivotal battle in the wars - the Battle of Naseby. By its end, King Charles had lost a large part of his army to the Roundhead forces under Sir Thomas Fairfax and his second-in-command, a certain Oliver Cromwell. Though more battles followed, this was the decisive one, paving the way for the king's eventual defeat, and following that, his trial, execution and the creation of our modern parliamentary democracy.

I love writing real-life personalities into the narrative, though only if they serve the plot of course! In Rebel Heart, I had great fun writing a scene after the battle in which my heroine, Merri, accused of being a Royalist spy by the villain, Abenazar Shine, must defend herself in front of Oliver Cromwell.

Ally Sherrick watched re-enactments of Civil War battles as part of her research for Rebel Heart.

4. How did you go about researching the Civil War and the historical details that you share in Rebel Heart, from what they ate and drank to how battles were fought?

I really enjoy the research part of writing. I guess it's the inner historian in me being let out to play. Reading a wide selection of books - fiction and non-fiction - to get a feel for the times is a must. And then deep-diving into specific things I want to find out more about - like the clothes people wore, what they ate, even what the weather was like at the time (wet!) - via articles on the web.

To gain a vivid understanding of the experience of both the soldiers who fought during the wars and the civilians forced to live through it, I got hold of a second-hand copy of a fascinating book called 'Going to the Wars' by Charles Carlton. This includes plenty of first-hand accounts, very useful for sprinkling dialogue with some authentic expressions of the day.

I also visited a number of Civil War sites including the brilliant National Civil War Centre in Newark, Nottinghamshire, a town which came under siege itself three times during the wars. The museum houses an amazing collection of artefacts, including a wheelchair belonging to Sir Thomas Fairfax which he used after the wars because of the many serious injuries he sustained. I found this very moving and it really brought home to me the true horror of war in a way that looking at lists of battles and casualties never really can.

Former soldiers and their families also wrote to Parliament asking for financial aid for personal injury, bereavement and loss of or damage to property. These fascinating, often heart-rending documents published on the Civil War Petitions website again reveal the true cost of war and its impact on ordinary people.

5. Can you tell us about your lead characters, Merriweather and Ned, and why you wanted them to come from opposite ends of the social hierarchy of the time?

At the start of the book, 14-year-old Merriweather is what you might call a bit of a handful. The only child of reluctant Royalist, Sir Richard Pryce and his late first wife, Elizabeth, she has grown up used to being able to do pretty much what she wants. But things change when Sir Richard's second wife, Lady Ellinor arrives on the scene and tries to turn her into a young lady. Merri kicks back. And it's this rebellious spirit or heart, plus the vow she made to her father to protect the family home come what may, that prompts her to escape and go for help.

Ned Woodruff, the 'horse-boy' for a band of Roundhead soldiers Merri encounters near the start of her adventures, is by contrast a young farmer's son on a mission of his own. After his father suffers a stroke, he sets out on his beloved pony, Hazel to bring his soldier brother Daniel, back to help run the family farm. But then he runs into Corporal Abenazar Shine and everything changes.

I didn't consciously set out to have Merri and Ned come from such different backgrounds. Rather it grew naturally out of the story. But I enjoy portraying unlikely friendships - there's one in each of my books. Besides providing the opportunity for a bit of initial conflict, it enables me to offer young readers a more rounded and nuanced view of things from very different perspectives, though of course villains are great for that too!

6. Which real people from history make an appearance, and how did you find out about what they were really like as people?

I mentioned earlier how I'd written Oliver Cromwell into one of the pivotal scenes in the story. I think most people think he was the leader of the Parliamentary forces. But he wasn't at the time my story's set, though as the commander of the cavalry, he played a key part in the defeat of the king's army at the Battle of Naseby. And though he doesn't make an appearance, I also include quite a few references to the actual commander-in-chief, Sir Thomas Fairfax.

And then of course on the opposite side, there's Merriweather's hero, the king's nephew, Prince Rupert, overall commander of the Royalist forces - though by the end of the story Merri's not so convinced of his heroism after all.

I used books and online articles to delve a bit more into both their characters, though I confess to being influenced just a little too by the portrayal of both men in the 1970 film 'Cromwell' which I watched in my teens. The battle scenes aren't terribly accurate, but the contrast of Prince Rupert as a swashbuckling daredevil and Oliver Cromwell as a dour man of conviction packed quite a punch with me at the time - though of course as my research revealed, there was a lot more to both men than that.

Author Ally Sherrick tries on some Roundhead battle armour, as part of her research for Rebel Heart.

7. Not everything in our history or politics is black and white. What does Merriweather come to learn about the opposing sides in the Civil War?

This is so true and it's something I've really enjoyed exploring in all of my stories. In Rebel Heart, Merriweather's journey takes her far from home, both literally and also in terms of exposing her to the attitudes and ways of life of people from backgrounds very different to her own. At the beginning, she is very definitely on the side of the King - though her father has only reluctantly joined his army out of a sense of honour. But as Merri quickly discovers, there are good and bad people on both sides.

For example, she idolises the Royalist commander, Prince Rupert at the start of the story, but she changes her mind about him when she learns about his brutal attack on innocent civilians at the siege of the city of Leicester shortly before the Battle of Naseby. And though my character Captain Jack Flint, the rebel leader and spy, is very firmly on the side of Parliament, Merri finds herself agreeing with Ned by the end of the story that he is a fair and honourable man.

8. If you could step back in time to this period, which of these characters would you meet, or what places or events would you like to visit? Which places with a connection to the English Civil War would you recommend as worth a visit?

Gosh - that's a tough one! I suppose in a way I've already been able to travel back in time and meet many of them by virtue of researching and writing the book. I'd love to have spent some time in the company of one of the real-life female 'intelligencers' or spies that helped inspire the story. Perhaps the Royalist, Jane Whorwood, who smuggled gold to the king in soap barrels and did her best to help him escape when he was being held prisoner by Parliament at Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight.

There are so many fascinating places with links to the Civil Wars across the UK. For example, besieged castles and manor houses like Corfe Castle or Basing House in Hampshire - both well worth a visit. Also, battlefield sites like Naseby in Northamptonshire where you can follow a self-guided tour of the key lookouts and places of action. And then there are the collections of armour, weapons and other artefacts in museums such as the already-mentioned National Civil War Centre. I've included a list of other recommended places to visit and also some good books and websites at the back of Rebel Heart.

Soldiers transport a gun during a Civil War battle re-enactment.

9. Where are your favourite places in the UK for connecting with your love of the past? What kinds of places might you visit to help inspire your next story?

Another tricky question! History is all around us. But one of my favourite places has to be the Weald and Downland Living Museum, a fantastic open-air museum near Chichester in the heart of the South Downs National Park. Its home to over 50 historic buildings saved from destruction and re-erected at a huge, 40 acre-site for visitors to enjoy. The buildings dating from the Anglo-Saxon period to the Victorian times and include houses through the ages, a flour-mill, a charcoal burners' camp and a medieval shop.

Special living history days give visitors the chance to find out what it must have been like to live and work in the buildings on show. I first went there when I was about ten or eleven years old, not too long after it first opened and it was like stepping through a portal in time. I still get that feeling each time we make a return visit. A magical place! And now I come to think of it, a brilliant place to mine for a new story idea too.

10. What is your favourite way to spend a non-writing day?

I love being out in the countryside, walking and doing a bit of bird-spotting along the way. My husband and I are both RSPB members and we like nothing better than heading to one of their many brilliant nature reserves with our binoculars to see what we can spot. Recent special sightings have included a group of Spoonbills feeding in the marshes and a Long-eared Owl snoozing in the reeds. And if we can find a café serving coffee and cake for a refuel, even better!

Creative Challenge: Do you have suggestions for using Rebel Heart to inspire discussions or creative writing in the classroom?

I mentioned that brave women defenders and also female soldiers and spies helped inspire my story. How about encouraging the students to research one of these real-life individuals - like Lady Mary Bankes of Corfe Castle or the spies, Jane Whorwood, or 'Parliament Joan'. Then ask them to step into their shoes and write a diary entry describing a moment of danger - perhaps when an enemy cannon-ball breaches the wall of the castle, or a soldier nearly discovers the treasure you've got hidden in your soap barrels?

Alternatively, you could check out the discussion topics included in the teacher's pack available on Chicken House Books Schools' Hub.

School Events: I offer fun, interactive school assembly talks which include:
• an introduction to me, my books and how I became a published author
• story sparks and characters
• a reading
• fascinating research nuggets
• a group story-starter exercise
• a Q&A
• a book signing

I also offer class-sized workshops of up to an hour long including:
• Creating Compelling Heroes and Villains
• What's in a story? Using examples from popular news sheets of the time to explore the difference between truth and fiction and to create propaganda stories of our own

Schools are welcome to contact me direct, or alternatively through Authors Aloud UK or Authors Abroad. For more information visit the Visits and events page of my website.

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