TO DEFY A KING by Elizabeth Chadwick has won the Romantic Novelists' Association's Historical Novel Prize. This year's judges were Richard Lee, founder of the Historical Novel Association, Elizabeth Hawksley, author and creative writing teacher, and Diane Pearson, president of the RNA since 1987.

TO DEFY A KING was shortlisted alongside TRADE WINDS by Christina Courtenay, THE GOLDEN PRINCE by Rebecca Dean, WAYWARD GOVERNESS by Joanna Fulford, THE JEWEL OF ST. PETERSBURG by Kate Furnivall and HEART OF STONE by Jane Jackson.