A Secret Alchemy

(Paperback)

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Description

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.

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.

Reviews

Praise for THE MATHEMATICS OF LOVE: 'This is that rare thing, a book that works on every conceivable level... an uncommonly good read' -- 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' -- 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

Author Bio

Emma Darwin was born in 1964 and brought up in London, Manhattan and Brussels. Her first novel, The Mathematics of Love", was widely acclaimed; A Secret Alchemy" is her second.