Book jacket for 'A traveller in time' by Alison Uttley

Some writers use real historic events in their stories. Traveller in Time by Alison Uttley is set in Dethick and Wingfield Manor. A young woman goes back in time to find love and heartbreak with the Babington family during their doomed plot to free Mary Queen of Scots. Looking in a mirror, she reflects “I saw my own pale face as I had seen it when first I came to Thackers, but older, more mature. I saw Penelope Taberner in the glass, and I felt very near those who loved her, so that I longed to slip through the hidden door to that unseen world where hearts were aching for a captive queen and a broken cause.”

Alison Uttley (1884-1976) was born Alice Taylor at Castle Top Farm, near the village of Cromford, Derbyshire. She wrote over 100 books and is best known for a children's series about Little Grey Rabbit and Sam Pig. She is also remembered for her novel for children, A Traveller in Time, about the imprisoned Mary, Queen of Scots.