Showing titles in Renaissance

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES-BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE SIX TUDOR QUEENS SERIES. In this short prequel to Alison Weir's new novel, Elizabeth of York, The Last White Rose, the young princess is born - and the future of England hangs in the balance. The Palace of Westminster, 1466. As the Queen of England...

A young Englishman captured by slavers must survive the snakepit that is seventeenth-century Venice. 1604. As pirates seeking slaves to sell in the markets of North Africa terrorise the coasts of Europe, headstrong Richard Sheriff and his sister Elizabeth are torn from their Devonshire home and...

Giulia Tofana longs for more responsibility in her mother’s apothecary business, but Mamma has always been secretive and refuses to tell her the hidden keys to her success. But the day Mamma is arrested for the poisoning of the powerful Duke de Verdi, Giulia is shocked to uncover the darker side of her trade. Giulia must run for her life and escapes to Naples, under the shadow of Mount Vesuvius, to the home of her aunt Isabetta, a famous courtesan.

‘An intriguing tale, told with confidence’ The Times ‘A great tale… the golden thread that led to the crown of England’ Conn Iggulden She’ll betray her king to crown her son When Edward of York takes back the English crown, the Wars of the Roses scatter the Lancastrian nobility and...

'Superbly researched and vividly told' Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury 'Affecting, action-packed' Carolyn Kirby 'This is neither men's history nor women's history. It is good, gripping history, sharply and immediately told... A real treat' Aspects of History A country torn apart...

The Crime Writers’ Association Historical Dagger Winning Author Winner of the 2024 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel ‘It’s hard to think of a better guide than D. V. Bishop to the brutality and glamour of Renaissance Florence’ – Andrew Taylor, bestselling author of The Royal Secret...

In the year 1492, the Inquisition has all of Spain in its grip. Yonah Toledano, the 15-year-old son of a celebrated Spanish silversmith, has seen his father and brother die during terrible days - victims whose murders go almost unnoticed in a time of mass upheaval. Trapped in Spain by circumstances, he is determined to honor the memory of his family by remaining a Jew. On a donkey named Moise, Yonah begins a meandering journey, a young fugitive zigzagging across the vastness of Spain.

The second instalment in a prize-winning series charting the rise of the House of Medici as they become Masters of Florence and progenitors of the Renaissance. Florence, 1469. The Medici family is preparing for the marriage of its son and heir Lorenzo. His heart belongs to another, but this union will strengthen the alliance with a powerful Roman family. Torn between love and power, the bounties and the compromises of governing, Lorenzo has become complacent. He has forgotten the bloody path he forged on his ascent to power and the enemies left in his wake.

The Binding meets The Handmaid's Tale - Discovering a book of dark and ancient power, a convent librarian must defend it with her life. Perfect for fans of dark academia and historical feminist fiction. 'A wonderfully rich and absorbing tale' Observer 'Expertly crafted and beautifully told'...

From “queen of royal fiction” (USA TODAY) Philippa Gregory comes this instant New York Times bestseller that tells the story of the remarkable Elizabeth of York, daughter of the White Queen, and mother to the House of Tudor. When Henry Tudor picks up the crown of England from the mud of...

Written in the winter of 1849, The Scarlet Letter unfolds the story of Hester Prynne, a young woman branded as an adulteress in the harsh Puritan world of seventeenth-century New England. As Hester calls on her inner strength to transcend her shame, the scarlet letter ceases to be a stigma and...

For years d’Artagnan shared his adventures with his three comrades - Athos, Porthos, and Aramis - but now, in Between Two Kings, the First Musketeer returns to the forefront. This is truly d’Artagnan’s novel, bringing to a dramatic climax the story that began when he first arrived in Paris 30 years earlier in The Three Musketeers.

Threatened by powerful enemies, William Blackburn, Earl of Ketterham, lives in exile in the Scottish Highlands with his daughter Vanessa. When she comes of age, William urges her to return to her mother in England to make her debut. Raised with all the advantages and freedom a boy would have, Vanessa doubts she can fit into the mold of a proper young lady. Still, she agrees to re-enter fashionable society, determined to end the vendetta against her father, never imagining the high price she will have to pay. 

'A stunning debut. Weaving together a cast of loveable rogues, a richly detailed historical setting, and a cinematic thrill ride of a story, Medici Heist knocked us flat!' The Duffer Brothers, creators of Netflix's STRANGER THINGS 'Riotously readable' the Guardian Welcome to Florence, 1517, a...

In 1570, Pope Pius V signed a document that changed everything. With a single papal bull, Elizabeth I became a heretic—excommunicated, her assassination blessed by Rome, her subjects absolved of all loyalty. For thirty-three years, Elizabeth navigated a world where every Catholic courtier might be an assassin and every foreign ambassador a spy. The Northern Rising. The Ridolfi conspiracy. Mary, Queen of Scots. The Spanish Armada. The Earl of Essex's betrayal.

Stephanie Laurens continues her bestselling Cynster series with Temptation and Surrender, the story of Jonas Tallent, brother-in-law of Lucifer Cynster, who leaves the ballrooms of London to manage his family’s estate, and his romance with lady innkeeper Emily Beauregard...

England. 1535. Jane Seymour is 27 years old and increasingly desperate to marry and secure her place in the world. When the court visits Wolf Hall, the Seymour ancestral manor, Jane has the perfect opportunity to shine: her diligence, efficiency, and newfound poise are sure to finally attract a suitor. Meanwhile, King Henry VIII is 45 and increasingly desperate for an heir. He changed his country's religion to leave his first wife, a princess of Spain, for Anne Boleyn—but she, too, has failed to provide a son.

Nineteen-year-old Anne of Denmark, Queen of Scotland, is thrilled and triumphant at the birth of a healthy baby boy, destined to reign as King of Scotland and, possibly, England. But Anne's enjoyment of maternal glory quickly fades as her husband King James, fearing his son will be politically manipulated against him as he was against his mother, the deceased Mary Queen of Scots, removes the child permanently from her care. Outraged, Anne tries to regain control of her son, initiating a bitter marital struggle which sours what had been a loving and harmonious marriage.

On May 17, 1536, a young court musician was executed, accused of adultery and treason with the queen. Most historians believe both he and Anne Boleyn were innocent—victims of Henry VIII’s rage. Mark Smeaton was a talented performer who rose from poverty to become a royal favorite. He played for the king in private and entertained at sumptuous feasts. He witnessed Anne Boleyn’s astonishing rise and fall—her reign of a thousand days. History tells us little about him, other than noting his confession and execution.

Kit Marlowe: playwright, poet, lover. In the plague-stricken streets of Elizabethan England, Kit flirts with danger, leaving a trail of enemies and old flames in his wake. His plays are a roaring success; he seems destined for greatness. But the queen's eyes are everywhere and the air is laced with paranoia. When Marlowe is arrested on charges of treason, heresy and sodomy—all of which are punishable by death—he is released on bail with the help of Thomas Walsingham, a man he presumes to be his friend, but who has in fact hired the infamous assassin Robin Poley to take care of Marlowe.

Girolamo Savonarola was a Dominican friar living in Florence at the tail end of the fifteenth century. An anti-corruption campaigner his hellfire preaching increasingly spilled over into tirades against all luxuries that tempted people towards sin. These sermons led to the infamous ‘Bonfire of the Vanities'—a series of fires lit throughout Florence for the incineration of everything from books, extravagant clothing, playing cards, musical instruments, make-up and mirrors, to paintings, tapestries and sculptures.

In the first of an extraordinary series from bestseller S.J.A. Turney, the fate of Empire hangs in the balance… Istanbul, 1481: The once great city of Constantine, a strange mix of Christians, Turks and Jews, now forms the heart of the Ottoman empire. The conquest, still a recent memory, means...

The page-turning historical saga that began in The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End, which now continues with Ken Follett's magnificent, masterful A Column of Fire. A World in Turmoil 1558, and Europe is in revolt as religious hatred sweeps the continent. Elizabeth Tudor has ascended...

Fontainebleau, 1536. Francis II, dauphin of France, is dead. Poisoned. And the royal court believe Catherine de' Medici to be the murderer. With the heir apparent dead, her husband Henry will now be the next king of France - and her queen - and Catherine's family is known to stop at nothing to consolidate their power. But not yet queen and without an heir of her own, Catherine cannot be sure of securing her family's legacy. To ensure the conception of an heir, she will need to seek help from an unexpected ally: Nostradamus, the reclusive astronomer and purported seer.

Renaissance Venice is a furnace of ideas and ambition. Artists flock here, not just for wealth and fame, but for revolutionary colour. Yet artist Giorgione 'Zorzo' Barbarelli's career hangs in the balance. Competition is fierce, and his debts are piling up. When Zorzo hears a rumour of a mysterious, other-worldly new pigment, brought to Venice by the richest man in Europe, he sets out to acquire the colour and secure his name in history. Winning a commission to paint a portrait of the man's wife, Sybille, Zorzo thinks he has found a way into the merchant's favour.

Queen Elizabeth Tudor is wary of the cousins. Ever since the ill-fated Lady Jane Grey nearly wrested the throne from her family, Elizabeth has been keen to ensure the fate of England doesn't land in Grey hands. She has banished Catherine Grey from court, along with her two children, but her unwed sister Mary remains at Whitehall Palace as one of Elizabeth's courtiers.

Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling is one of the most iconic masterpieces of the Renaissance. Here, in Raphael, Painter in Rome, Storey tells of its creation as never before: through the eyes of Michelangelo's fiercest rival - the young, beautiful, brilliant painter of perfection, Raphael. Orphaned at age 11, Raphael is determined to keep the deathbed promise he made to his father: become the greatest artist in history. But to be the best, he must beat the best, the legendary sculptor of the David, Michelangelo Buonarroti. 

WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION FINALIST REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER The author of award-winning Hamnet brings the world of Renaissance Italy to jewel-bright life in this unforgettable fictional portrait of the captivating young duchess Lucrezia de' Medici as she...

May 1536: Queen Anne Boleyn has fallen and Jane Seymour is about to become Queen, yet the King's new love is troubled not only by the fall and execution of his last wife and Queen, but by the creeping feeling that she knows not the man she has promised to marry. As Jane steps into the palaces of the King, emerging quietly as England's Queen, she finds herself haunted by thoughts of Anne Boleyn, Katherine of Aragon and what the past means for her own fate. And Jane is not the only one troubled by the actions of King Henry VIII.

(Tudor Rose Book 3) Feisty orphan Pippa de Lacey lives by wit and skill as a London street performer. But when her sharp tongue gets her into serious trouble, she throws herself upon the mercy of Irish chieftain Aidan O'Donoghue. Pippa provides a welcome diversion for Aidan as he awaits an...

REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK “A shocking story, made all the more stunning by the fact that it has its roots in true history.”—Jodi Picoult, author of By Any Other Name “A new generation of survival story . . . an extraordinary book that reads like a thriller, written with the care of...

England, 1605 Anne of Denmark, Queen of England, gives birth to her daughter, her first child since coming to England in 1603 when her husband James succeeded to the English throne. Although they would have preferred a son, both parents are pleased, and their courtiers are thrilled with the...

(Tudor Rose Book 1) Frustrated by his own failures at matrimony, King Henry VIII punishes an insolent nobleman by commanding him to marry the vagabond woman caught stealing his horse. Stephen de Lacey is a cold and bitter widower, long accustomed to the sovereign's capricious and malicious whims...