Wessex the ensuing Norman Conquest of England, and as the Norman kings soon did away with the great earldoms of the late Anglo-Saxon period, 1066 marks the extinction of Wessex as a political unit. From the second edition (1989) of the "Oxford English Dictionary": Wessex 1. The name of a kingdom in south-west England in Anglo-Saxon times, used by Thomas Hardy as the name of the county in which his stories are set (corresponding approximately to Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, and Wiltshire) and since used as a name for south-west England or this part of it. Wessex is often symbolised by a
Kate Ellis (author) Kate Ellis (author) Kate Ellis is a British author of crime fiction, best known for a series of detective novels, which blends history with mystery, featuring policeman Wesley Peterson. Ellis' first novel, "The Merchant's House", published in 1998, received positive reviews and was chosen as one of the ten best summer reads by "Woman's Weekly". She has since written 21 more novels in this series, many to critical acclaim. Ellis has also written five novels set in Yorkshire as part of the Joe Plantagenet series and an historical crime novel, "The Devil's Priest", which is set in 16th century Liverpool.