Aurélie de Gubernatis interviews Mireille Calmel about her novel “The Templar’s Daughter” published by XO editions.
The Book: A pyre, a hidden treasure, a fascinating heroine.
March 19, 1314, Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Order of the Temple, is burned in the public square. He has been condemned by King Philip the Fair, who accuses the Templars of hiding a fabulous treasure.
But on the day of the execution, a dove delivers a message into the hands of the sovereign. It is a terrible curse: the king and his sons will pay for this crime!
Eight years later…
July 15, 1322. A young peasant girl, Flore Dupin, is chased by the soldiers of
Charles IV. What secret does she hold? What is her connection to the Order of the Temple?
A man tells her, “Before dying, the king mentioned your name!”
A mysterious brotherhood, courageous women, cursed kings; with this twentieth novel, Mireille Calmel delivers a fascinating adventure story.
Mireille Calmel often says that writing saved her life. For when,
at the age of 8, she fell gravely ill and was declared lost, she began to write, both to express her fear and because she deeply believed that as long as she expressed herself in this way, she would not die.
At fifteen, when she regained a normal life, Mireille thought only of writing.
In 1995, she began what would become “The Bed of Eleanor” and it was a success: more than
800,000 copies sold in France.
Since then, all her novels: “The Bed of Eleanor,” “The Ball of the She-wolves,” “Lady Pirate,” “The Witches’ Song,” “The Queen of Light,” “Eleanor,” “A Last Kiss Before Silence,” and recently “The Lionesses of Venice” enjoy the same success.
