The Virgin's Lover

Informationen zum Autor PHILIPPA GREGORY is one of the world’s foremost historical novelists. She wrote her first ever novel, Wideacre , when she was completing her PhD in eighteenth-century literature and it sold worldwide, heralding a new era for historical fiction.    Her flair for blending history and imagination developed into a signature style and Philippa went on to write many bestselling novels, including The Other Boleyn Girl and The White Queen .    Now a recognised authority on women’s history, Philippa graduated from the University of Sussex and received a PhD from the University of Edinburgh, where she is a Regent and was made Alumna of the Year in 2009. She holds honorary degrees from Teesside University and the University of Sussex. She is a fellow of the Universities of Sussex and Cardiff and an honorary research fellow at Birkbeck University of London.    Philippa is a member of the Society of Authors and in 2016 was presented with the Outstanding Contribution to Historical Fiction Award by the Historical Writers’ Association. In 2018, she was awarded an Honorary Platinum Award by Neilsen for achieving significant lifetime sales across her entire book output.   She welcomes visitors to her site www.PhilippaGregory.com. Klappentext 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. Autumn 1558 All the bells in Norfolk were ringing for Elizabeth, pounding the peal into Amy´s head, first the treble bell screaming out like a mad woman, and then the whole agonizing, jangling sob till the great bell boomed a warning that the whole discordant carillon was about to shriek out again. She pulled the pillow over her head to shut out the sound, and yet still it went on, until the rooks abandoned their nests and went streaming into the skies, tossing and turning in the wind like a banner of ill omen, and the bats left the belfry like a plume of black smoke as if to say that the world was upside down now, and day should be forever night. Amy did not need to ask what the racket was for; she already knew. At last, poor sick Queen Mary had died, and Princess Elizabeth was the uncontested heir. Praise be. Everyone in England should rejoice. The Protestant princess had come to the throne and would be England´s queen. All over the country people would be ringing bells for joy, striking kegs of ale, dancing in the streets, and throwing open prison doors. The English had their Elizabeth at last, and the fear-filled days of Mary Tudor could be forgotten. Everyone in England was celebrating. Everyone but Amy. The peals, pounding Amy into wakefulness, did not bring her to joy. Amy, alone in all of England, could not celebrate Elizabeth´s upward leap to the throne. The chimes did not even sound on key, they sounded like the beat of jealousy, the scream of rage, the sobbing shout of a deserted woman. "God strike her dead," she swore into her pillow as her head rang with the pound of Elizabeth´s bells. "God strike her down in her youth and her pride and her beauty. God blast her looks, and thin her hair, and rot her teeth, and let her die lonely and alone. Deserted, like me." Amy had no word from her absent husband: she did not expect one. Another day went by and then it was a week. Amy guessed that he would have ridden at breakneck pace to Hatfield Palace from London at the first news that Queen Mary was dead. He would have been the first, as he had planned, the very first to kneel before the princess and tell her she was queen. Amy guessed that Elizabeth would already have a speech prepared, some practiced pose to strike, and for his ...

Product details

• Authors: Philippa Gregory
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 16.11.2004
• EAN: 9780743256155
• ISBN: 978-0-7432-5615-5
• No. of pages: 441
• Dimensions: 165 mm x 235 mm x 32 mm
• Series: The Plantagenet and Tudor Novels; Plantagenet and Tudor Novels
• Subject: Fiction > Narrative literature