Meet the characters from The Reflection in the Mirror
26th September 2025 by | UncategorizedMeet the characters from The Reflection in the Mirror
Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester
Sharp-eyed, heavy-browed, and impossible to wrong-foot, Stephen Gardiner was the king’s lawyer-theologian who preferred statute and canon to sweet talk. Trained in law at Cambridge and Paris, he could unpick an argument thread by thread, and he did not mind if the room felt the pull.
At court he was the steady voice of caution: loyal to the crown, wary of radical change, and quick to defend old certainties when the wind blew towards reform. He sparred with Cromwell, watched the rise and fall of queens, and kept his papers neat: warrants, letters, and careful Latin notes written by candlelight.
In our story, ‘Winchester’ is the cool hand on the table edge — patient, formidable, and very hard to read.
The Reflection in the Mirror is my debut historical novel, to be published in October 2025. Set in London, 1540, it follows Catherine Howard and Sir Ralph Sadler as they navigate the opulent and treacherous Tudor court; you can find more at www.murderinthetower.london.
Hashtags: #StephenGardiner #TudorHistory #HistoricalFiction
Renaissance-style portrait of Bishop Stephen Gardiner in clerical dress, seated at a table with books, seals, candle and cross.
The past is never silent