Showing titles in Renaissance

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...

Love is the most dangerous magic. As a sculptress, Ravenna Maffei has always shaped beauty from stone, but she has a terrible secret. Desperate to save her brother, she enters a competition hosted by Florence's most feared immortal family, revealing a dark power in a city where magic is...

'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...

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.

France, 1351: Kemp and his men are captured in a skirmish near Calais, and subsequently imprisoned in a French castle. All attempts at escape are punished with death. Then Sir Hugues de Beauconray comes to Kemp with an offer: escort a Dominican friar on a quest to steal a mysterious book from an abbey in Scotland. Fail, and ten of Kemp's friends will be hanged.

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.

'I am in awe of Wendy Holden' Heather Morris In her dazzling new novel, No. 1 Sunday Times bestseller Wendy Holden presents a new take on the Anne Boleyn story. The Queen's Painter traces her stellar rise and tragic fall as seen by Tudor court artist Hans Holbein. Close friend of the ill-fated...

The King's Painter by bestselling historian Alison Weir is an e-short and companion piece to the captivating fourth novel in the Six Tudor Queens series, Anna of Kleve: Queen of Secrets. 'There are certain matters that are better handled by ladies than by ministers or ambassadors' King Henry...

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...

The Curse of the Hungerfords by acclaimed historian Alison Weir is a companion piece to the captivating fourth novel in the Six Tudor Queens series, Anna of Kleve: Queen of Secrets. Each sunset, as I go to the chapel, I find myself looking for her. I look for details. What she is wearing, some...

In this New York Times bestseller that inspired the critically acclaimed Starz miniseries The White Queen, Philippa Gregory tells the tale of Anne Neville, a beautiful young woman who must navigate the treachery of the English court as her father, known as the Kingmaker, uses her and her sister...

Longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger 2026 Tuscany. Winter, 1540. Travelling north into the hills above Florence, investigator Cesare Aldo seeks answers about his past. The trail leads him to Ospedale de’ Pazzi, a secure institution for the criminally insane. Soon after arriving a blizzard...

1560: Amy Robsart is trapped in a loveless marriage to Robert Dudley, a member of the court of Queen Elizabeth I. Surrounded by enemies and with nowhere left to turn, Amy hatches a desperate scheme to escape – one with devastating consequences that will echo through the centuries. Present Day: When Lizzie Kingdom is forced to withdraw from the public eye in a blaze of scandal, it seems her life is over. But she’s about to encounter a young man, Johnny Robsart, whose fate will interlace with hers in the most unexpected of ways.

October, 1604. Former ship's surgeon turned country physician Gabriel Taverner is surprised to receive an urgent summons from his old naval captain. Now docked in Plymouth harbour, having recently returned from the Caribbean, Captain Colt believes his ship is haunted by an evil spirit and has asked Gabriel to investigate. Dismissive of the crew's wild talk of mysterious blue-skinned ghosts, Gabriel is convinced there must be a rational explanation behind the mass hallucinations.

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

The Black Mountain is a Quick Read short story from bestselling author Kate Mosse. It is May, 1706. Ana, a young Spanish woman, lives in a small town on the north-west coast of Tenerife with her mother and twin younger brothers. The town is in the shadow of a mighty volcano, which legend says...

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'...

October 1604. Plague has hit London, and the theatres are closed. But the capital's loss is Plymouth's gain, when a London theatre troupe, the Company, arrive on their 'Plague Tour'. Country physician Gabriel Taverner is bewitched and unnerved by the Company's sexually charged staging of Othello. But when Gabriel's friend tells him of a dangerous whispered conversation overheard during a brief break, he is relieved the Company will soon be on their way. Then one of the actors collapses, and Gabriel finds himself caught in a waking nightmare, where nothing is as it appears.

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. 

London, 1607. As dawn breaks, Daniel Pursglove rides north, away from the watchful eye of the King and his spies. He returns, disguised, to his childhood home in Yorkshire - with his own score to settle. The locals have little reason to trust a prying stranger, and those who remember Daniel do so with contempt. When a body is found with rope burns about the neck, Daniel falls under suspicion. On the run, across the country, he is pursued by a ruthless killer whose victims all share the same gallows mark.