"Superb.... A perceptive, suspenseful account." --The New York Times
Book Review
"Dunn demythologizes Elizabeth and Mary. In humanizing their dynamic and
shifting relationship, Dunn describes it as fueled by both rivalry and
their natural solidarity as women in an overwhelmingly masculine world."
--Boston Herald
The political and religious conflicts between Queen Elizabeth I and the
doomed Mary, Queen of Scots, have for centuries captured our imagination
and inspired memorable dramas played out on stage, screen, and in opera.
But few books have brought to life more vividly the exquisite texture of
two women's rivalry, spurred on by the ambitions and machinations of the
forceful men who surrounded them. The drama has terrific resonance even
now as women continue to struggle in their bid for executive power.
Against the backdrop of sixteenth-century England, Scotland, and France,
Dunn paints portraits of a pair of protagonists whose formidable
strengths were placed in relentless opposition. Protestant Elizabeth,
the bastard daughter of Anne Boleyn, whose legitimacy had to be
vouchsafed by legal means, glowed with executive ability and a visionary
energy as bright as her red hair. Mary, the Catholic successor whom
England's rivals wished to see on the throne, was charming, feminine,
and deeply persuasive. That two such women, queens in their own right,
should have been contemporaries and neighbours sets in motion a joint
biography of rare spark and page-turning power.
