A Secret Alchemy - Hardcover

Darwin, Emma

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 075533065X ISBN 13: 9780755330652

Publisher: Headline Review, 2008

Synopsis

Two murdered princes; a powerful queen betrayed; a nobleman riding towards his certain death...

The story of the Princes in the Tower has been one of the most fascinating - and most brutal - murder mysteries in history for more than five hundred years.

In a brilliant feat of historical daring, Emma Darwin has recreated the terrible, exhilarating world of the two youngest victims of the War of the Roses: the power struggles and passion that lay behind their birth, the danger into which they fell, the profoundly moving days before their imprisonment, and the ultimate betrayal of their innocence.

In A Secret Alchemy, three voices speak: that of Elizabeth Woodville, the beautiful widow of King Edward IV; of her brother Anthony, surrogate father to the doomed Prince Edward and his brother Dickon; and that of present-day historian Una Pryor. Orphaned, and herself brought up in a family where secrets and rivalries threaten her world, Una's experience of tragedy, betrayal and lost love help her unlock the long-buried secrets that led to the princes' deaths.

Weaving their stories together, Emma Darwin brilliantly evokes how the violence and glamour of past ages live on within our present.

About this title

Review:

Praise for The Mathematics of Love": 'This is that rare thing, a book that works on every conceivable level... an uncommonly good read...remarkable...this is a novel of extremes: there is suffering, violent and disturbing portraits of war and of personal loss; but equally extreme moments of joy and human undertanding. At its core are the emotions that most shape us - love and loss...[Emma Darwin] builds layer upon layer of emotion and history until, like a photographic print emerging from its chemical bath, the final picture is revealed...A real achievement' -- The Times 'Fascinating!. If you're in a book club torn between lovers of 19th-century and modern fiction, The Mathematics of Love" may be just the thing to square the circle... hauntingly beautiful' -- Washington Post 'Convincing and involving...a book to lose yourself in' -- Daily Mail 'A beautifully written, intelligent book...as historically graphic and passionately romantic as Sebastian Faulks's Birdsong'" -- Waterstone's Books Quarterly 'A daring debut novel...Emma Darwin's prose is golden and convincing. Addictive' -- Daily Express 'The reader is spellbound...electrifying...magical' -- Independent 'This sweeping tale of nineteenth-century war and courtship and twentieth-century teenage rebellion has a real flavour of its own that will grip you to the end...an accomplished, vividly realised debut' -- Marie Claire 'Intriguing...compelling...convincing' -- Publishing News '[An] absorbing historical novel of love and war...linked themes between the narratives flower - painting versus photography, female liberation versus repression, the complexities of love' -- Guardian 'Artful and absorbing...will fit comfortably beside Birdsong" or Captain Corelli's Mandolin'" -- Tatler 'Wonderfully perceptive...enthralling and beautifully written' -- Psychologies 'Thrilling...beautiful, compelling' -- Easy Living

Book Description:

Possession meets The Other Boleyn Girl in the heartbreaking story of the Princes of the Tower.

About this edition

• Publisher: Headline Review
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 075533065X
• ISBN 13: 9780755330652
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 416