The first in Margaret Irwin’s great trilogy of novels about the life of ‘Good Queen Bess’ begins with her childhood, the execution of her mother, Anne Boleyn, banishment from her father’s Court and restoration by Henry VIII’s last wife, Katherine Parr. After the king’s death Katherine marries Tom Seymour but he seeks higher stakes: the king’s daughter, second in line to the throne, is a great attraction and the adolescent Elizabeth finds herself dangerously beguiled.
