| Blending historical fact with contemporary rumor, the bestselling author of "The Queen's Fool" creates a dark and tense novel of Tudor times, which casts Elizabeth I in a light no one has suggested before. Passionate, fearful, emotionally needy, this is a queen who rules over a feverishly plotting, pleasure-seeking court. From The Publisher:
In the autumn of 1558, church bells across England ring out the joyous news that Elizabeth I is the new queen. One woman hears the tidings with utter dread. She is Amy Dudley, wife of Sir Robert, and she knows that Elizabeth's ambitious leap to the throne will pull her husband back to the very center of the glamorous Tudor court, where he was born to be. Amy had hoped that the merciless ambitions of the Dudley family had died on Tower Green when Robert's father was beheaded and his sons shamed; but the peal of bells she hears is his summons once more to power, intrigue, and a passionate love affair with the young queen. Can Amy's steadfast faith in him, her constant love, and the home she wants to make for them in the heart of the English countryside compete with the allure of the new queen? Elizabeth's excited triumph is short-lived. She has inherited a bankrupt country, riven by enmity, where treason is normal and foreign war a certainty. Her faithful advisor William Cecil warns her that she will survive only if she marries a strong prince to govern the rebellious country, but the one man Elizabeth desires is her childhood friend, the irresistible, ambitious Robert Dudley. Robert revels in the opportunities of the new reign. The son of an aristocratic family brought up in palaces as the equal of his royal playmates, Robert knows he can reclaim his destiny at Elizabeth's side. Elizabeth cannot resist his courtship, and as the young couple slowly falls in love, Robert starts to think the impossible: can he set aside his wife and marry the young queen? Philippa Gregory's The Virgin's Lover answers the question about an unsolved crime that has fascinated detectives and historians for centuries. Philippa Gregory uses documents and evidence from the Tudor era and, with almost magical insight into the desires of Robert Dudley and his lovers, paints a picture of a country on the brink of greatness, a young woman grasping at her power, a young man whose ambition is greater than his means, and the wife who cannot forgive them. About The Author:
Philippa Gregory is the author of several novels, including The Other Boleyn Girl and the New York Times bestseller The Queen's Fool. Wideacre, her debut, was also a New York Times bestseller and the first in a trilogy that included The Favored Child and Meridon. A writer and broadcaster for radio and television, she lives in England.
Annotation:
Philippa Gregory's historical novels concentrate on the Tudor period in England, and in this gripping installment she goes directly to the heart of the era: the beautiful Virgin Queen, Elizabeth I. It's 1558, and the 25-year-old queen is trying to consolidate her power, which is threatened by her Scots cousin, Mary. At the same time, she is involved in a passionate relationship with Sir Robert Dudley, who unfortunately already has a wife. Gregory's painstaking research combines with true novelistic flair to tell a fascinating story of love and royalty--with a murder mystery thrown in as well.
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