
- William Collins
- Published: 9th June 2011
The Girl in the Mirror
Sarah Gristwood
Jeanne, a young French exile orphaned by the wars of religion on the continent, is brought to London as a young girl disguised as a boy. Growing up, the disguise has not been shed and she finds a living as a clerk, ending up in the household of Robert Cecil. As she witnesses the intrigues and plots swirling round the court of Elizabeth I in the last days of Gloriana’s reign, she finds herself sucked into the orbit of the dashing and ambitious young favourite, the Earl of Essex. The queen draws near to the end of her life, with no heir to follow, and the stakes are high.
As Essex hurtles towards self-destruction, Jeanne finds her loyalties, her disguise and her emotions under threat – in a political climate where the least mistake can attract dire penalties.
This is a beautifully written and evocative novel, rich with the details of life and politics of Elizabeth I’s court. Jeanne’s struggle for survival and love is interwoven with her passionate pull towards the gardens she documents, a lovely and seductive backdrop to the novel.
Other books by Sarah Gristwood
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Secret Voices: A Year of Women’s Diaries
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The Tudors in Love: The Courtly Code Behind the Last Medieval Dynasty
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Vita & Virginia: A Double Life
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The Queen’s Marys
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Elizabeth: The Queen and Crown
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Game of Queens: The Women Who Made Sixteenth-Century Europe
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Blood Sisters: The Women Behind the War of the Roses
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Elizabeth & Leicester
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Bird of Paradise: The Colourful Career of the First Mrs Robinson
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Arbella: England’s Lost Queen