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- The mirror & the light / by Mantel, Hilary,1952-author.; sequel to:Mantel, Hilary,1952-Bring up the bodies.;
""If you cannot speak truth at a beheading, when can you speak it?" England, May 1536. Anne Boleyn is dead, decapitated in the space of a heartbeat by a hired French executioner. As her remains are bundled into oblivion, Thomas Cromwell breakfasts with the victors. The blacksmith's son from Putney emerges from the spring's bloodbath to continue his climb to power and wealth, while his formidable master, Henry VIII, settles to short-lived happiness with his third queen before Jane dies giving birth to the male heir he most craves. Cromwell is a man with only his wits to rely on; he has no great family to back him, no private army. Despite rebellion at home, traitors plotting abroad and the threat of invasion testing Henry's regime to the breaking point, Cromwell's robust imagination sees a new country in the mirror of the future. But can a nation, or a person, shed the past like a skin? Do the dead continually unbury themselves? What will you do, the Spanish ambassador asks Cromwell, when the king turns on you, as sooner or later he turns on everyone close to him? With The Mirror & the Light, Hilary Mantel brings to a triumphant close the trilogy she began with Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. She traces the final years of Thomas Cromwell, the boy from nowhere who climbs to the heights of power, offering a defining portrait of predator and prey, of a ferocious contest between present and past, between royal will and a common man's vision: of a modern nation making itself through conflict, passion, and courage"--- Subjects: Historical fiction.; Cromwell, Thomas, Earl of Essex, 1485?-1540;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 2
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- God rest ye, royal gentlemen / by Bowen, Rhys,author.;
"Lady Georgiana Rannoch is hanging the stockings with care when a murder interrupts her holiday cheer in this all-new installment in the New York Times bestselling Royal Spyness series from Rhys Bowen. For my first Christmas as a married woman, it seems fitting that I throw a little house party for my nearest and dearest at Eynsleigh, my lovely new home. While this sounds delightful in theory, the fact of the matter is I cannot trust Queenie not to burn the house down, let alone cook a decent dinner for my prospective guests. However, all of my problems appear to be solved when Darcy receives a letter from his aunt, Ermintrude, who has moved to a small house on the edge of the Sandringham estate, near the royal family. It appears Darcy's odd aunt wants to meet me, but I had not realized she was the former lady-in-waiting and close confident of the Queen! Her majesty has told Aunt Ermintrude that it would be a great comfort to have me nearby during this festive time of year. Realizing that the invitation from Darcy's aunt is actually a royal summons in disguise, we pack up our guests: Mummy, Binky and Fig-and yes, even Queenie-and head to Sandringham. Once settled at Aunt Ermintrude's grace-and-favor house, I learn that the notorious Mrs. Simpson, mistress to the Prince of Wales, will also be in attendance along with the Prince himself, my cousin David. It is now as clear as crystal that the Queen expects me to do a bit of spying. But when I pay Her Majesty a visit, I learn that there is more to her request than just some simple eavesdropping. There have been a couple of strange incidents at the estate in recent years. Two gentlemen of the royal household died in mysterious circumstances during the previous December. And now it seems that the deadly accidents are starting up again. Is the real target the Prince of Wales and his prickly paramour, or is there an even more sinister plot at work? I must get to the truth of the matter to ensure that my first Christmas married to my darling Darcy is not our last ..."--- Subjects: Detective and mystery fiction.; Christmas fiction.; Historical fiction.; Sandringham House (Sandringham, England); Aristocracy (Social class); Murder; Newlyweds; Rannoch, Georgie (Fictitious character); Secrecy;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- King / by Kane, Ben,author.;
Autumn 1192. With Jerusalem still in the Saracens' hands, and a peace treaty agreed with their leader Saladin, Richard the Lionheart is free at last to travel back to his strife-ridden kingdom. By his side at every turn is the loyal knight Ferdia, also known as Rufus. Together they will face not just Richard's archenemy Philippe Capet of France, but also the king's treacherous younger brother, John. Shipwrecked on the Italian coast, the king and his small group of companions are forced into a perilous journey through lands controlled by their enemies. Shortly before Christmas 1192, Richard is taken prisoner near Vienna by Duke Leopold of Austria. Kept prisoner for several months, the king is then handed over to Henry VI, the Holy Roman Emperor. His captivity lasts for another year, fanning the flames of unrest in his territories in England and beyond. Talks between Richard's mother Queen Alienor and Henry VI last for months, but finally reach a bitter agreement. The extortionate sum demanded to free the king will empty the treasury and bleed England dry. Philippe Capet and Richard's brother John collude, offering vast sums to see the king kept captive for longer. Their efforts are in vain, leading Philippe to pen a letter to John including the famous line: 'Look to yourself, the devil is loose.' Crowned for a second time to wash away the shame of his captivity, Richard restores order in England, forgiving John his shameful behaviour. His next task is to recover territories lost to Philippe Capet, and to re-establish his dominance over the French king. Forging clever alliances, building strategic castles and when obliged, waging war, the Lionheart carves a unique path into history.- Subjects: Biographical fiction.; Historical fiction.; Novels.; John, King of England, 1167-1216; Richard I, King of England, 1157-1199; Crusades; Gentry; Hostages; Knights and knighthood;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- Erebus : the story of a ship / by Palin, Michael,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Intrepid voyager, writer and comedian Michael Palin follows the trail of two expeditions made by the Royal Navy's HMS Erebus to opposite ends of the globe, reliving the voyages and investigating the ship itself, lost on the final Franklin expedition and discovered with the help of Inuit knowledge in 2014. The story of a ship begins after the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo, when Great Britain had more bomb ships than it had enemies. The solid, reinforced hulls of HMS Erebus, and another bomb ship, HMS Terror, made them suitable for discovering what lay at the coldest ends of the earth. In 1839, Erebus was chosen as the flagship of an expedition to penetrate south to explore Antarctica. Under the leadership of the charismatic James Clark Ross, she and HMS Terror sailed further south than anyone had been before. But Antarctica never captured the national imagination; what the British navy needed now was confirmation of its superiority by making the discovery, once and for all, of a route through the North-West Passage. Chosen to lead the mission was Sir John Franklin, at 59 someone many considered too old for such a hazardous journey. Nevertheless, he and his men confidently sailed away down the Thames in April 1845. Provisioned for three winters in the Arctic, Erebus and Terror and the 129 men of the Franklin expedition were seen heading west by two whalers in late July. No one ever saw them again. Over the years there were many attempts to discover what might have happened--and eventually the first bodies were discovered in shallow graves, confirming that it had been the dreadful fate of the explorers to die of hunger and scurvy as they abandoned the ships in the ice. For generations, the mystery of what had happened to the ships endured. Then, on September 9th, 2014, came the almost unbelievable news: HMS Erebus had been discovered thirty feet below the Arctic waters, by a Parks Canada exploration ship. Palin looks at the Erebus story through the different motives of the two expeditions, one scientific and successful, the other nationalistic and disastrous. He examines the past by means of the extensive historical record and travels in the present day to those places where there is still an echo of Erebus herself, from the dockyard where she was built, to Tasmania where the Antarctic voyage began and the Falkland Islands, then on to the Canadian Arctic, to get a sense of what the conditions must have been like for the starving, stumbling sailors as they abandoned their ships to the ice. And of course the story has a future. It lies ten metres down in the waters of Nunavut's Queen Maud Gulf, where many secrets wait to be revealed."--- Subjects: Erebus (Ship); Scientific expeditions;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- We three queens / by Bowen, Rhys,author.;
"New mother Lady Georgiana Rannoch finds herself trying to separate fact from fiction when a murder occurs during the filming of a splashy historical drama on the grounds of her estate ... My darling little James Albert has finally arrived, and I am enjoying every moment of being a new mother. Well, there are certainly many dirty nappies to be changed, and I may be somewhat sleep deprived, but I am utterly content, especially now that my husband, Darcy, won't be traveling quite so much for his very secret government work. Everything is going swimmingly until Darcy is summoned to a private meeting with my cousin, who happens to be King Edward VIII. The king is in turmoil and wants desperately to marry the scandalously divorced and even more scandalously American Wallis Simpson. Darcy tries to convince Edward that his duty to his people must come first, but my besotted cousin is having none of it. Much to my shock and horror, he asks Darcy and I to hide Mrs. Simpson here at Eynsleigh while he figures out what to do. I will admit freely that I don't love the idea of the judgmental, aloof Mrs. Simpson coming to stay with us, but we can hardly refuse the king. Surely she won't stay very long, and then things can get back to normal. But I soon discover that Sir Hubert, the owner of Eynsleigh, has just given a film crew permission to shoot a motion picture about Henry the Eighth and Anne Boleyn on the grounds. Trying to keep Mrs. Simpson hidden while entertaining these Hollywood transplants is much more than I bargained for. And when the young star of the show goes missing and another is found dead, my once quiet home is in complete disarray. Of course, no crisis would be complete without my never pleasant sister-in-law, Fig, who decides now would be a perfect time to visit with Binky and their two children. I know I will need to keep my wits about me to rescue my household from the brink of madness, all while searching for a missing person, solving a murder, and stopping a scandal of royal proportions ... "--- Subjects: Detective and mystery fiction.; Novels.; Aristocracy (Social class); Families; Man-woman relationships; Missing persons; Mothers; Motion picture actors and actresses; Murder; Rannoch, Georgie (Fictitious character); Scandals; Women spies;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Results 171 to 175 of 175 | « previous