Elizabeth Chadwick is to Medieval England what Philippa Gregory is to the Tudors & the Stuarts, and Bernard Cornwell is to the Dark Ages. If you're a lover of history and wanted to know about the lives and loves of real people during those times, you could do no better than to read their novels, because they are historically accurate. It's a bit like Ronseal - it does what it says on the tin. You can guarantee that when you pick up one of these author's books, you're not only in for a jolly good read, you're also guaranteed accuracy. There are people in the publishing industry who claim that historical fiction is a dead end. All periods have been covered, done to death, so to speak, but if that were the case, why do those three authors regularly appear among the best-sellers?

I was brought up with books. In my village, the public library comprised three bookcases of books in the primary school, open two nights a week. Once I'd learned how to read, I read anything and everything. Pretty soon, I'd read all the children's books and started on the adult fiction. It was in one of those three bookcases that I discovered the likes of Jean Plaidy, Netta Muskett, Georgette Heyer. I went through phases, just as I do now, only now it's a case of having to. A package will arrive with the latest Ian Rankin, or the latest William Shatner, or the latest Bernard Cornwell, or Conn Iggulden, and I have to read them - they're must-reads, for me. Now Elizabeth Chadwick has joined that group of must-reads, and she's opened my eyes to the glories of the Medieval period in the same way that Philippa Gregory taught me so much more than the textbooks about the Tudors and the Stuarts, and Bernard Cornwell has unravelled the complexities of the Dark Ages.

Most of today's top-selling authors are very approachable. I've e-mailed and had replies from both Philippa Gregory and Bernard Cornwell, and in this issue of Gateway you'll find an interview with Elizabeth. Writing to famous authors and finding out they're really just ordinary, though very talented human beings is not much of a revelation. In fact they're much more interesting than any of today's so-called celebrities, for a variety of obvious reasons. For one thing, they have an abundance of talent! And they're only too pleased to share their thoughts and sometimes their secrets, the secrets of their success, that is, with us, Elizabeth being no exception. I'd earmarked the new Bernard Cornwell as my historical fiction book of the month, but I happened to like very much Elizabeth's latest book, A PLACE BEYOND COURAGE, and described it as "Jean Plaidy with sex". The next thing I knew, Elizabeth had e-mailed to thank me for my review, and that's what got me started on the quest to find out more about her.

I was amazed to discover, for example, that A PLACE BEYOND COURAGE was her seventeenth novel (her tenth for Sphere) - why hadn't I heard of her before? Simple. I don't go into bookshops any more, unless I'm trying to track down something old. My books come to me courtesy of the publishers, for me to read and review in Gateway. The cover of A PLACE BEYOND COURAGE drew me in, and once I was in, I was hooked. I paid little attention to the page that listed her other books, I wanted to dive straight into the story, because I was in an historical frame of mind. Elizabeth's story-telling is effortless, and when I read what she had to say about herself on her own website, I found out why.

She's a born story-teller. Some people are born to tell stories, and amongst those people I would include Stephen King, the aforementioned Bernard Cornwell and Philippa Gregory, Conn Iggulden and James Twining. There are countless others, of course, but these five strike me as the most memorable of the modern authors. One couldn't imagine Stephen King doing anything other than write books. Elizabeth is the same. As a child she "imagined" new adventures for her favourite TV programmes and books, and progressed to historical fiction and a position where she is now on high and able to look back with deserved pride for her remarkable achievements. Of course, for every successful author there are maybe ten or twenty who never make it, purely because the circumstances are not right for them. The agent doesn't spot the talent, the reader has an off day, whatever. Elizabeth is one of the lucky ones, but she's only lucky because of her enormous talent and her tenacity. As she rightly says, "don't see rejection as an end, but a beginning, and use it as a goad to improve your next piece of work..."

Every published author will say the same - don't ever give up; if you are truly a writer, carry on writing, and write primarily for yourself. Don't try to write to a formula to please an agent or a publisher, write about what you know. Elizabeth is an acknowledged expert on medieval history because of her research, her involvement with reenactment through Regia Anglorum and her membership of the Anglo Norman Text Society - the emphasis is very much on research and accuracy, and once you've mastered that, people will accept what you say as the truth and readership will grow quickly. Of that, Elizabeth is living proof and a shining example. I'm already looking forward to her next book...