In the original dustsheet. Black cloth binding with red gilt title on the spine.

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A wrenching novel about the life and death of Lady Jane Grey, one of the most complex and sympathetic figures in Tudor England, by popular historian Alison Weir: ideal for fans of Wolf Hall

Lady Jane Grey was born into times of extreme danger. Child of a scheming father and a ruthless mother, for whom she was merely a pawn in a dynastic power game with the highest stakes, she lived a life in thrall to political machinations and lethal religious fervour. Jane’s astonishing and essentially tragic story was played out during one of the most momentous periods of English history. As a great-niece of Henry VIII, and the cousin of Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I, she grew up to realize that she could never throw off the chains of her destiny. Her honesty, intelligence and strength of character carry the reader through all the vicious twists of Tudor power politics, to her nine-day reign and its unbearably poignant conclusion.

Reviews:

• Alison Weir’s hugely popular history books are as gripping as novels, and now she has stepped effortlessly over the boundary… Weir’s knowledge of the background is immaculate, and she revels in the freedom of fiction without sacrificing historical fact. Lady Jane is brave and intelligent, and if you don’t cry at the end you have a heart of stone. — Kate Saunders ― The Times

• Alison Weir is one of our greatest popular historians. In her first work of fiction, she sets out to trace the brief life of one of history’s most tragic heroines… Weir manages her heroine’s voice brilliantly, respecting the past’s distance while conjuring a dignified and fiercely modern spirit. ― Daily Mail

• This is an impressive debut. Weir shows skill at plotting and maintaining tension, and she is clearly going to be a player in the overcrowded historical fiction game. We can look forward to seeing what subject she’ll tackle next. — Lesley McDowell ― Independent on Sunday

• The story is so compelling and horrible that even a reader well acquainted with it will be gripped…This is a novel that will grip readers and give great pleasure. — Allan Massie ― Scotsman

• The story of Lady Jane Grey is of a girl surrounded by people who should have rejoiced is this exceptional young woman, but those closest to her by blood had their own ruthless ambition in which her only part was to be a manipulated pawn on the chess board of power. The problem with the end of the book is that I know how the story ends and by then I have come to like and admire Jane so much that I was reluctant to have to read her end in black and white. Somehow, with every telling of her story, I always wish it would turn out differently. My only reservation it the device of having the story told in the first person by the major protagonists of that story. At first I didn’t like it, though by the end I really appreciated this approach. Probably by the end each character had come to life from the page, and maybe Ms Weir had become more comfortable with novel writing; but the early part I found a bit more awkward. Nonetheless a wonderful read so stick with it to the inevitably bitter ending.

The Author,  Alison Weir is one of Britain’s top-selling historians. She is the author of numerous works of history and historical fiction, specialising in the medieval and Tudor periods. Her bestselling history books include The Six Wives of Henry VIII, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Elizabeth of York and The Lost Tudor Princess. Her novels include Innocent Traitor, Katherine of Aragon: The True Queen and Anne Boleyn: A King’s Obsession. She is an Honorary Life Patron of Historic Royal Palaces and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She lives and works in Surrey.