In her second novel, Alison Weir goes to the heart of Tudor England at its most dangerous and faction-riven in telling the story of Elizabeth I before she became Queen The towering capricious figure of Henry VIII dominates her childhood, but others play powerful roles Mary, first a loving sister, then as Queen a lethal threat Edward, the rigid and sad little King Thomas Seymour, the Lord High Admiral, whose ambitions, both political and sexual, are unbridled And, an ever-present ghost, the enigmatic, seductive figure of her mother Anne Boleyn, executed by Henry, whose story Elizabeth must unravel