The bestselling author and historian Lisa Hilton picks up the mythical 'City of Ladies' where the medieval writer Christine de Pisan left off, continuing a conversation about gender and greatness that began more than six hundred years ago.
The shockingly audacious conclusion to the international bestselling phenomenon that began with Maestra.
In 15th century Florence, orphaned Mura learn that hermagical heritage makes her a precious prize in this vividly researched historical drama of love, betrayal, and witchcraft Five-year-old Mura is a strange and bewitching child. Daughter of a Nordic mother and Spanish father, she has been tutored in both Arabic and the ancient mythology of the north. But when her widower father is taken by the Inquisition, Mura is sold to a Genoese slaver. In the port of Savona, Mura's androgynous looks and unusual abilities fetch a high price. She is bought as a house slave for the powerful Medici, arriving in Florence as the city prepares for war against the French. When the family are forced to flee, Mura finds herself gifted to the notorious Lioness of Romagna, Countess Caterina Sforza. Beautiful, ruthless, and intelligent, the Countess is fascinated by Mura's arcane knowledge. As the Lioness educates her further in the arts of alchemy, potions, and poisons, Mura becomes a potent weapon in the Machiavellian intrigues of the Renaissance court."
Everything you thought you knew about Maestra...You don't. Judith Rashleigh returns in the stunning new thriller from the author of the worldwide # 1 bestseller, Maestra.
A world that drips with wealth. A dangerous conspiracy that opens doors. A woman who knows what she wants - and exactly how to get it. Shockingly original and darkly decadent, Maestra is like nothing else you've ever read...
Hilton, Lisa
In 1682, a young woman in the throes of a passionate affair flees her parents' home in Surrey to seek a new life in London. A scandal in its own right, but this is no ordinary young woman- Lady Henrietta Berkeley is the daughter of one of England's most powerful men, and her lover is her own sister's husband... Inspired by this scandal, Aphra Behn would go on to write Love Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister, arguably the first novel in English literature. An immediate bestseller, it propelled Behn out of poverty and disgrace, yet she remains an enigma, the facts about her life continually disputed. In The Scandal of the Century, Lisa Hilton interweaves the story of these two rebellious and ruthless women. Against the backdrop of seventeenth-century England, with its strict traditional conventions of love, duty and identity, she shows just how far these women would go to break free.
