A Tapestry of Treason by Anne O’Brien

From Lancashire Evening Post: 

When Shakespeare wrote of Macbeth’s ‘vaulting ambition,’ he could well have been describing the medieval Despenser family… a Yorkist clan steeped to their necks in treason and betrayal. 

At the heart of their scheming to steal back the throne from the Lancastrian King Henry IV was Constance, Lady Despenser, a granddaughter of Plantagenet King Edward III, and wife of the self-seeking Thomas Despenser, Earl of Gloucester, a man who hailed from a family already tainted by scandals of treason and corruption.

The Despensers’ treachery, their battle to survive, their perilous politicking, and the daring woman willingly caught up in their power struggle, spring to vivid life from the pages of history in a dazzling new novel from the queen of medieval fiction, Anne O’Brien.

Using her impressive imaginative powers and vast historical research, O’Brien has given a voice and a leading role to some of history’s most fascinating but forgotten women, placing their struggles at the centre of riveting stories filled with political intrigue, romance and tragedy.

But in the cold and calculating Constance of York, O’Brien has given the spotlight to one of her most charismatic medieval stars yet… a complex, compelling woman far ahead of her time, a woman prepared to risk losing life, limb and her love for the only man who had ever won her heart, and all in pursuit of her family’s ambitions.

It’s a thrilling story, based on fact, filled with the kind of rich drama that should really only belong in pure fiction, and made viscerally authentic by the hand of a writer who knows how to make history a living, breathing, vibrant canvas.

read more here @ Lancashire Evening Post