Goodreads asked David West:

How do you get inspired to write?

David West The inspiration for my first novel, The Spy who Sank the Armada, came from reading a biography of Sir Francis Drake. I discovered that Francis Walsingham had a spy who was giving him every detail of the preparation of the Armada. That spy was Sir Anthony Standen. Standen was my mother's maiden name. I read his entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, and it was the most amazing story, but I kept asking "Why did he do that?" and "How did he do that?" I have since discovered that Edmund Standen, Anthony's younger brother is my 10th great-grandfather. I feel compelled to tell Anthony's story.

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