View our feature on Sarah Gristwood’s Elizabeth & Leicester.Though the story has been told on film—and whispered in historic gossip—this is the first book in almost fifty years to solely explore the great queen’s attachment to her beloved Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester. Fueled by scandal and intrigue, their relationship set the explosive connection between public and private life in sixteenth-century England in bold relief. Why did they never marry? How much of what seemed a passionate obsession was actually political convenience? Elizabeth and Leicester reignites this 400- year-old love story in a book for anyone interested in Elizabethan literature.

In his own way Leicester was as mysterious a person as the Queen. His influence on her, from the beginning of her reign until his death in 1588, was constant and incalculable ¿ greater than that of anyone else save Burleigh ¿ though he was generally unpopular among his fellow courtiers, detested by the populace as a whole, and lampooned by the writers of the day. Leicester¿s complex character, his lavish entertaining, his encouragement of the arts, his day-by-day activities ¿ as courtier, Master of the Queen¿s Horse, Chancellor of Oxford, leader of the English forces in the war of the Netherlands against Spain ¿ are all brought vividly to life. First published in 1961.

One of the greatest loves of all time-between Elizabeth I and Robert Dudley-comes to life in this vivid novel. They were playmates as children, impetuous lovers as adults-and for thirty years were the center of each others' lives. Astute to the dangers of choosing any one man, the Virgin Queen could never give her "Sweet Robin" what he wanted most-marriage- yet she insisted he stay close by her side. Possessive and jealous, their love survived quarrels, his two disastrous marriages to other women, her constant flirtations, and political machinations with foreign princes. His Last Letter tells the story of this great love... and especially of the last three years Elizabeth and Dudley spent together, the most dangerous of her rule, when their passion was tempered by a bittersweet recognition of all that they shared-and all that would remain unfulfilled.

History of the relationship between the Queen and her courtier, set in the colorful history of the times.

An exquisite sequel to "The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn", "Maxwell's second novel breathes extraordinary life into the scandals, political intrigue, and gut-wrenching battles that typified Queen Elizabeth's reign" ("Publishers Weekly").