The Boleyn Secret

At twelve, Kate Carey attends her aunt, Queen Anne Boleyn, to the scaffold, and comes away convinced that Henry VIII has sent an innocent woman to her death. With the Boleyns out of favour, Kate serves her motherless cousin, the young Lady Elizabeth. The two girls grow as close as sisters, until Kate marries for love and leaves a jealous Elizabeth behind.

Then come the sly looks and whispers at court, and, as her mother Mary lies dying, a truth the family has kept hidden for years. Alison Weir, the Sunday Times bestselling historian and novelist, follows Kate into exile abroad during the religious persecutions and home again when Elizabeth becomes queen, tracing a bond between cousins that a secret quietly changes. For readers who like their Tudor history told by the women standing just behind the throne.