The Queen and the Countess
The spellbinding new historical novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author!
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The Queen and the Countess
Narrated by:
Helen Stern, Jilly Bond
Buy Now for €17.88
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Narrated by:
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Helen Stern
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Jilly Bond
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By:
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Anne O'Brien
'An enthralling insight into the Wars of the Roses seen through the eyes of two powerful women. A superb read' CLARE MARCHANT
'A fascinating story of two powerful women on opposing sides of the War of the Roses. Told with assurance and knowledge of the period' ELIZABETH CHADWICK
KEEP THY FRIENDS CLOSE,
THY ENEMIES CLOSER...
England 1450s
Queen Margaret knows she must protect the crown, and her son Prince Edward's claim to it, at all costs. It is up to her to fight for their inheritance, with her husband King Henry becoming increasingly frail. And as the Wars of the Roses rage on, Margaret's enemies lurk close, threatening to unravel everything she is trying to protect.
Anne, Countess of Warwick, has long striven to be a loyal and accomplished wife to the Earl of Warwick. But when she develops an unlikely alliance with the Lancastrian Queen Margaret, her husband's adversary, she wonders how much power now lies in her hands to determine the course of history.
Crossing enemy lines, the pair strike up a thorny friendship - yet in the midst of treachery and the turmoil of battle, can the two women trust each other?
Or is it only a matter of time before war drives a sword between them...
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Your favourite authors love Anne O'Brien:
'It kept me riveted until the last page' BARBARA ERSKINE
'Tremendous and engrossing' NICOLA CORNICK
'Be warned: it's incredibly addictive' TRACY BORMAN
'Anne O'Brien gets right inside the heads of her medieval characters' JOANNA HICKSON©2025 Anne O’Brien
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Historically, I don't know how accurate it would be for women of the two rival factions to correspond in such frank terms. Margaret left much correspondence behind but little of it so personal and sadly, no diaries. And chronicles saw no value in reporting women's side of a story, whether York or Lancaster. This is where creative writing of all sorts comes into its own, using imagination and clever guesswork to fill in the gaps. These women of course all knew each other and it's nice to think they may have found some common ground when all the men around them were fighting to the death.
Finally, I want to applaud the author for engaging with the known evidence and material items from the 15th century. Her research really stood out for me as well as her way of making the characters engaging with real events, people and items. I enjoyed the various "Easter Eggs" of Wars of the Roses history, dropped into an imagined setting - especially the final one, which I won't spoil!
Enjoyable historical fiction and reasonably balanced
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