
Set in late fourteenth century England Vanora Bennetts rich dramatic new novel presents an England uncannily like our own. The country is in turmoil The King is in debt to the City & the old order had broken down
- a time of opportunity indeed for those who can seize the moment. The kings mistress Alice Perrers becomes the virtual ruler of the country from his sickbed. Disliked & despised by the Black Prince & his cronies her strong connections to the merchants make her a natural ally for the kings ambitious second son John of Gaunt. Together they create a powerful position in the city for one of his henchmen Geoffrey Chaucer. In this moment of opportunity Alice throws herself into her new role & the riches that lay before her but Chaucer even though her lover & friend is uneasy over what he can foresee of the conspiracies around them. At the centre of these troubled times & political unrest stands the remarkable figure of a woman who having escaped the plague which killed her whole family is certain she is untouchable & a man who learns that cleverness & ambition may for him sit too uneasily with decency & honesty.