The 462nd anniversary of Jane’s death is a fitting date for the confirmation of the UK publication of a new biography.
Nicola Tallis has told me that ‘Crown of Blood’ will be published by Michael O’Mara in the autumn (date to be confirmed). It will be published in the USA by Pegasus.
‘Good people, I am come hither to die, and by a law I am condemned to the same’. These were the heartbreaking words of a seventeen-year-old girl, Lady Jane Grey, as she stood on the scaffold awaiting death on a cold February morning in 1554. Minutes later her head was struck from her body with a single stroke of a heavy axe, and her soul winged its way to the Protestant heaven in which she had so vehemently believed. Her death for high treason sent shockwaves through the Tudor world, and served as a gruesome reminder to all who aspired to a crown that the axe could fall at any time.
Jane is known to history as ‘the Nine Days Queen’, and while her story has been told, historians often ignore the human and emotional aspects of it. Furthermore the recent trend of trying to highlight her achievements and her religious faith has in fact further obscured the real Jane, a young religious radical who saw herself as an advocate of Protestantism, and ultimately became a martyr for her faith. Crown of Blood is an important and significant retelling of an often misread tale: set at the time of Jane’s fall and following her journey through to her trial and execution, each chapter moves between the past and the ‘present’ in order to unravel the grim tapestry of Lady Jane Grey’s life, and chart the deadly intrigues that led inexorably to its horrific and searing climax.’
© Andrew Lownie Literacy Agency.
Further details – Andrew Lownie Literacy Agency website.
Follow Nicola Tallis on Twitter @MissNicolaTal
