The Darling Strumpet puts the reader smack in the tumultuous world of seventeenth century London, charting Nell Gwynn’s meteoric rise from the grimy slums to triumph as a beloved comic actress, through the cataclysmic years of the last plague epidemic and the Great Fire of 1666, to the licentious court and the arms of the king.

Bess quickly learns to navigate the treacherous waters, and survives the turbulent reigns of five Tudor monarchs to become of the most powerful women in the history of England Venus in Winter, based on the first forty years of the life of the formidable four-times widowed dynast Bess of Hardwick, begins with Bess’s introduction to the court of Henry VIII just as the king weds Anne of Cleves. Gillian Bagwell’s richly detailed historical novels bring to vivid life England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 'synopsis' may belong to another edition of this title. But it is when she is widowed a third time that she is left with a large fortune and even larger decisions-discovering that, for a woman of substance, the power and the possibilities are endless. Bess outlives one husband, then another, securing her status as a woman of property. Even so, she finds the courage to wed not once, but four times.

The gruesome fates of Henry’s wives convince Bess that marrying is a dangerous business. When Bess arrives at the glamorous court of King Henry VIII, she is thrust into a treacherous world of politics and intrigue, a world she must quickly learn to navigate. But as her family has neither the money nor the connections to find her a good husband, she must go to facilitate her rise in society. Armed with nothing but her razor-sharp wit and fetching looks, Bess is terrified of leaving home. On her twelfth birthday, Bess of Hardwick receives the news that she is to be a waiting gentlewoman in the household of Lady Zouche. title The September Queen) explores Tudor England with the tale of Bess of Hardwick-the formidable four-time widowed Tudor dynast who became one of the most powerful women in the history of England.

The Darling Strumpet by Gillian Bagwell