A thrilling account of one of English history’s most daring women, who risked everything in the dark days leading up to the Civil War. The perfect novel for fans of Suzannah Dunn and Phillipa Gregory.Court beauty, Lucy Russell, Countess of Bedford, feels frustrated by life with her weak husband. Poverty stricken, they are confined to their country estate and excluded from court life in London after he disastrously allies himself against Elizabeth I.Now, some years later, James I is seated on the...
An epic love story set in the period of Music and Silence, for readers of Rose Tremain and Philippa Gregory.1639. Zeal Beester, mistress of the rolling Hampshire estate of Hawkridge, is pregnant, unwed, and the King has banished her lover to the New World. The Puritan Praise-God Gifford will have her burnt at the stake for depravity.To save herself and the child, Zeal becomes the wife of Philip Wentworth, an ageing soldier and adventurer. But Philip’s extraordinary tales of El Dorado only remind...
Superb historical novel of the Jacobean court, in which Princess Elizabeth strives to avoid becoming her father’s pawn in the royal marriage marketThe court of James I is a volatile place, with factions led by warring cousins Robert Cecil and Francis Bacon. Europe is seething with conflict between Protestants and Catholics. James sees himself as a grand peacemaker – and what better way to make his mark than to use his children in marriage negotiations?Into this court come Henry, Prince of Wales,...
A magnificent novel that vividly evokes the atmosphere of a seventeenth century English country estate, and the seething intrigue of Rembrandt’s Amsterdam where the population is in the grip of a fever of tulip trading.It is the Summer of 1636. In England botanist John Nightingale hides from his dangerous past at Hawkridge House, deep in the tranquillity of the countryside.In Holland, the population is gripped by a fever of speculation. Fortunes are gambled on the commodity markets, trading in...
