The young man in the dock is no other than Michael Fane and the Judge is - yes you have guessed it!
‘The Hanging Judge’ Lord George Jeffreys of Wem.
The artist was John de Walton and was made in circa 1860 and was taken from my original copy of ‘The Black Box’ by W.Bourne Cooke - I have never pretended that the concept was originally mine. I read the book as a child and adult and I have added characters, locations, battles etc. In the original it finished after Michael received a pardon from his death sentence. In my version that never happened, and W.Bourne Cooke’s version was 254 pages long. I have condensed that tale to just 56 pages so virtually all of it is brand new content. Enjoy - but be warned - I use the torture techniques used at the time of the Bloody Assize and they make the end of Braveheart seem like the ‘Teddy Bears Picnic’ you have been warned!!

In particular the death of Percy Kirke, this method of torture was used. In fact some of the methods devised by Feversham and Kirke were too gruesome to publish!!