Dark Tudor

In brutally repressive sixteenth-century England, artists had been frightened into dull conventionality; foreigners were suspect; popular entertainment largely consisted of coarse spectacles, animal fights, and hangings. Into this crude world came an ambitious cobbler’s son with an uncanny ear for Latin poetry―a torment for most schoolboys, yet for a few, a secret portal to beauty, visionary imagination, transgressive desire, and dangerous skepticism.

London, 1471. The War of the Roses rages on. Edward of York has claimed the English throne, and his Yorkist supporters gleefully slaughter their adversaries; there's no mercy for anyone who supported the Lancastrian cause. Margaret Beaufort - mother of Henry Tudor, the only hope for the House of Lancaster - knows her enemies are closing in. Desperate for help, she turns to Christopher Urswicke for protection. But when ruthless scheming and pitiless killings are the only routes to survival, Urswicke will have to choose where his loyalties truly lie.

In the year 1526 King Henry VIII is facing a great personal crisis. He has been married to Queen Catherine of Aragon for seventeen years. But he has no son and the kingdom is without an heir. He has fallen in love with a maid of honor named Anne Boleyn. But she refuses to become his mistress and insists on being recognized as his lawful wife. The tragedy of “The King’s Great Matter” begins to unfold with terrible consequences for all concerned.

♥ When Sean walks into the village with a scarred face and a scarred heart, he is only hoping for a dry place to sleep. Then he meets the one woman who sees the man under the scars . . . and his life is changed forever. ♥ A hot and fast short novella, like a fevered kiss in the dark, full of passion, steam, and true Highland romance! Sean MacDubh has no prospects in life, moving from village to village, a lone nomad with a scarred face. Wynda Ferguson lives a simple life as a baker’s daughter. Until the mysterious hooded Sean walks into her life. Now she wants to know all about this ...

Presenting an enthrallingly dark medieval fantasy – a fable of twisted folklore, macabre magic and the strangest of found families – from M. R. Carey, author of the million-copy bestseller, The Girl With All the Gifts. Eleven hundred and some years after the death of Christ, in the...

The Tudors are England's most notorious royal family. But, as Leanda de Lisle's gripping new history reveals, they are a family still more extraordinary than the one we thought we knew. The Tudor canon typically starts with the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 before speeding on to Henry VIII and the Reformation. But this leaves out the family's obscure Welsh origins and the ordinary man known as Owen Tudor who would fall (literally) into a queen's lap - and later her bed.

The summer of 1553 is a time of danger and deceit. Brendan Prescott, an orphan, has been reared in the household of the powerful Dudley family. Brought to court, Prescott finds himself sent on an illicit mission to the king’s brilliant but enigmatic sister, Princess Elizabeth. But Brendan is soon compelled to work as a double agent by Elizabeth’s protector, William Cecil, who promises in exchange to help him unravel the secret of his own mysterious past.

Brought to you by Penguin. THE MUST-READ RICHARD & JUDY BOOK CLUB PICK. Chilling, moving and unputdownable, The Memory Wood is a thriller like no other. Elijah has lived in the Memory Wood for as long as he can remember. It's the only home he's ever known. Elissa has only just arrived. And...

When Shakespeare’s intensely personal sonnets are published, only one thing is clear: none in the triangle of author, male muse or dark lady is best pleased – and each has a score to settle. Richard Palmer is working as a censor, making sure that playhouse scripts do not offend political sensitivities. He works for the irascible, old-school Master of the Revels, Edmund Tilney and his designated successor, the altogether smoother Sir George Buc. Buc has heard that William Shakespeare is working on a new play in collaboration with a novice writer. Who is George Wilkins, Buc wants to know?...

Laszlo the Gargoyle, engineered by the Vatican through a top-secret breeding program, possesses a rare combination of dragon and human traits. Placed in a perilous situation, he is tasked with a mission by the mysterious government agency known only as The Hand on a manhunt to find Gottlieb the Clairvoyant, a powerful and dangerous fortune teller armed with a sinister deck of haunted tarot cards and psychic abilities.