Lissa Morgan is a romantic novelist whose books are set in Wales in the Middle Ages.

Originally from south Wales and now based in Dolgellau, Lissa went to university in Aberystwyth in the 1990s. Since then – despite travelling far and wide, and once as far as South America – she thinks of mid and north Wales as home.

Lissa had various jobs over the years, before winning a two-book contact with Harlequin Mills & Boon last autumn.

“I’d been focussing on contemporary romantic fiction, although Welsh history is my first love and I’d studied history and Welsh at university,” Lissa explained.

“After too many rejected manuscripts to count, it was one of the editors at Mills & Boon – Linda Fildew, who subsequently signed me – who suggested I might like to try writing an historical romance, given my interests and background.”

Lissa took her advice and dusted off an unfinished manuscript she’d started years ago, a story set in Wales, about a ‘marriage of alliance’ between a Welsh nobleman and the daughter of a Marcher baron.

“It took a while to get back into this story but once I did, the characters almost wrote themselves,” Lissa recalls.

“However, I didn’t just want to write a romance, I wanted to bring in the history, colour and language of Wales too. The book is set in the late 13th century, so the revolt of Madog ap Llywelyn, 1294-5, provided the perfect dramatic backdrop for my characters to play out their emotional journey.”

Coming a decade after the Edwardian conquest of 1282-3, the revolt was an ambitious attempt to throw off the King’s rule in Wales. Overshadowed by the later rebellion of Owain Glyndŵr – which Lissa plans to feature in a future book – it raged from Anglesey to Cardiff, Cardigan to Brecon and even over the border into Herefordshire and Shropshire. Edward I had to postpone his invasion of Gascony to deal with it, spurred into action perhaps at hearing that Madog was proclaiming himself Prince of Wales, a title the King had bestowed on his firstborn son after eliminating the native ruling dynasty of Gwynedd.

“Needless to say, my hero, Rhun ab Owain, is firmly on the side of the rebels! It was a very rewarding experience for me as a writer to reconcile his patriotism, and his part in the revolt’s decisive battle at Maes Moydog, with his marriage to Eleanor, the daughter of a man who is his bitterest enemy. And extremely rewarding too to explore Eleanor’s experience of coming to live in a culture so far removed from that of her childhood home where she doesn’t even speak the language!”

The Welsh Lord’s Convenient Bride came out in e-book on 26 May and is available from Amazon and Mills & Boon. Lissa’s next book, An Alliance with his Enemy Princess – set in the Dysynni Valley at the time of the Norman Conquest – will be published in January 2023. Find out more about Lissa’s writing at www.lissamorgan.com.

Julie’s First Person column returns in two weeks. To feature in it, email Julie or call 01970 615000.