A Good Deliverance

Toby Clements was inspired to write the Kingmaker series having first become obsessed by the Wars of the Roses after a school trip to Tewkesbury Abbey, on the steps of which the Lancastrian claim to the English throne was extinguished in a welter of blood in 1471. Since then he has read everything he can get his hands on and spent long weekends at re-enactment fairs. He has learned to use the longbow and how to fight with the poll axe, how to start a fire with a flint and steel and a shred of baked linen. He has even helped tan a piece of leather (a disgusting experience involving lots of urine and dog faeces). Little by little he became less interested in the dealings of the high and mighty, however colourful and amazing they might have been, and more fascinated by the common folk of the 15th Century: how they lived, loved, fought and died. How tough they were, how resourceful, resilient and clever. As much as anything this series is a hymn to them. He lives in London with his wife and three children.

Matt’s theatre work includes plays for The Royal National Theatre, Chichester Festival Theatre, The Old Vic and Theatr Clwyd. His television credits include W1A, Doctors, Pobol Y Cwm, The British, Queen Victoria's Men and The Devil's Hour. Matt joined the BBC Radio Repertory Company back in 2009 and has been heard in hundreds of dramas and comedies across the network. He has narrated over 300 unabridged audiobooks.