England, 1647: a wise woman has predicted the birth of Simon Dale, to the very day and district. But if the rest of her ominous forecast is accurate, how can this ordinary child be predestined to love where the King loved, know what the King hid, and drink of the King’s cup? For the young man, Simon Dale, only one course of action can be taken: not to seek his own path, but to leave himself in the hands of Fate. This brilliant novel charts an absorbing period in history and the tumultuous life of an ordinary man in noble surrounds. (Goodreads)
Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins, better known as Anthony Hope (9 February 1863 – 8 July 1933), was an English novelist and playwright. He was a prolific writer, especially of adventure novels but he is remembered predominantly for only two books: The Prisoner of Zenda (1894) and its sequel Rupert of Hentzau (1898). These works, "minor classics" of English literature, are set in the contemporaneous fictional country of Ruritania and spawned the genre known as Ruritanian romance, works set in fictional European locales similar to the novels. Zenda has inspired many adaptations, most notably the 1937 Hollywood movie of the same name. (Wikipedia)