The Winter Siege - Softcover

1643. As winter closes in around the town of Nantwich, the civil war that rages across the country, threatening to tear England apart, is yet to reach the town’s gates. But while the residents wait, eyeing the outside world with unease, they face a deadly threat from within: Townspeople have started dying – murdered – the red sashes of the royalists left on the bodies marking them as traitors to the parliamentary cause. It falls to Constable Daniel Cheswis to contain the bloodshed, but with few clues and the constant distraction of war, can he protect the people of Nantwich? And which among them need protecting? In these treacherous times, everyone’s a traitor, whether it be in war, law, or love. When the Winter Siege is through, who will be among the bodies?

DW Bradbridge was born in 1960 and grew up in Bolton. He has lived in Crewe, Cheshire since 2000, where he and his wife run a small magazine publishing business for the automotive industry. “The inspiration for The Winter Siege came from a long-standing interest in genealogy and local history. My research led me to the realisation that the experience endured by the people of Nantwich during December and January 1643-44 was a story worth telling. I also realised that the closed, tension-filled environment of the month-long siege provided the ideal setting for a crime novel. “History is a fascinating tool for the novelist. It consists only of what is remembered and written down, and contemporary accounts are often written by those who have their own stories to tell. But what about those stories which were forgotten and became lost in the mists of time? “In writing The Winter Siege, my aim was to take the framework of real history and fill in the gaps with a story of what could, or might have happened. Is it history or fiction? It’s for the reader to decide.”