THE COMPELLING NOVEL FROM SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER PHILILPPA GREGORY

'Margaret, I have to tell you. There was a curse.' Elizabeth, my cousin, puts her hand in mine and I can feel her tremble.
'What curse?'
'It was that whoever took my brothers from the Tower, whoever put my brothers to death should die for it.'

From the Number One bestselling author comes the riveting story of Margaret Pole, cousin of Elizabeth of York, and her unique view of Henry VIII's terrifying rise to power in Tudor England.

As an heir to the Plantagenets, Margaret is seen by the King's mother as a powerful threat to the Tudor claim to the throne. She is buried in marriage to a Tudor supporter - Sir Richard Pole, governor of Wales - and becomes guardian to Arthur, the young Prince of Wales, and his beautiful bride, Katherine of Aragon.

But Margaret's destiny, as cousin to the queen, is not for a life in the shadows. Tragedy throws her into poverty and only a royal death restores her to her place at young Henry VIII's court where she becomes chief lady-in-waiting to Queen Katherine. There she watches the dominance of the Spanish queen over her husband and her tragic decline.

Amid the rapid deterioration of the Tudor court, Margaret must choose whether her allegiance is to the increasingly tyrannical Henry VIII or to her beloved queen. Caught between the old and the new, Margaret must find her own way, concealing deep within her the knowledge that an old curse cast upon all the Tudors is slowly coming true...

Praise for Philippa Gregory:
 
‘Meticulously researched and deeply entertaining, this story of betrayal and divided loyalties is Gregory on top form’ Good Housekeeping
 
‘Gregory has popularised Tudor history perhaps more than any other living fiction writer…all of her books feature strong, complex women, doing their best to improve their lives in worlds dominated by men’ Sunday Times
 
‘Engrossing’ Sunday Express
 
‘Popular historical fiction at its finest, immaculately researched and superbly told’ The Times