Most Popular Books by Sarah Gristwood

The excitement surrounding the marriage of Prince William to Kate Middleton has prompted four of Britain's top historical biographers to look closely at Royal Weddings from 1066 to the present day. Professionally, Alison Weir, Kate Williams, Sarah Gristwood, and Tracy Borman do events and television together, and are known affectionately, as the "History Girls." They bring an elan, and a passion for detail and dramatic narrative to all their subjects. Each writer focuses on different areas of interest. Alison Weir deals with the medieval, Tudor and Stuart periods. Kate Williams scrutinizes the Georgians and Victorians. Sarah Gristwood takes up the story in 1919, when Princess Patricia of Connaught revived the tradition of royal brides marrying in Westminster Abbey, and goes on to examine the weddings of the Queen Mother (1923), the Queen (1947), and Princess Margaret in 1960. Lastly, Tracy Borman brings the book right up to date, with accounts of the wedding of Prince Charles and Diana Spencer through to the fanfare that will celebrate the nuptials of Kate and William. Every kind of wedding features--from those attended by great public celebrations, to the many that took place in private chapels, parish churches and even in secret. Fascinating anecdotal details are revealed in the course of this most informative and entertaining overview of royal weddings through history, some amusing, some poignant, some bawdy. The Ring and the Crown places the royal wedding of the heir to the throne in historical perspective, and it does so with carefully selected illustrations that help make the authors' insights come even more vividly alive.

The dramatic story of thirteen legendary female rulers who shaped the course of sixteenth-century Europe

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.

'United across centuries, these women's voices open doors to lost worlds and make them seem familiar. A modern classic.' – Alison Weir, author and historian. A captivating collection of daily extracts from women's diaries, looking back over four centuries to discover how women's experience – of men and children, sex and shopping, work and the natural world – has changed down the years. And, of course, how it hasn't. Organised around the calendar year, in this engaging anthology you'll find Lady Anne Clifford in the seventeenth century and Loran Hurnscot in the twentieth both stoically recording the demands of an unreasonable husband; Joan Wyndham and Anne Frank, at much the same time, but in wildly different settings, describing their first experiences with sex; and Anne Lister (TV's Gentleman Jack) in eighteenth-century Yorkshire exploring her love affairs with women alongside Alice Walker in twentieth-century California. With several selections for each day, from the 1st January to the 31st December, this book is a fascinating record of how women were thinking, feeling and reacting to historical events. From Virginia Woolf relishing her new haircut and Oprah Winfrey meditating on her career to Emilie Davis chronicling the death of Abraham Lincoln and teenage Ma Yan yearning for education in poverty-stricken China, Secret Voices contains a rich mix of well-known diarists and less familiar ones, and often the voices echoing down the centuries sound eerily familiar today.

Based on letters written by England's "Lost Queen," this portrait describes the niece to Mary Queen of Scots and cousin to Elizabeth I who became a pawn in the power struggles of her age and tried unsuccessfully to flee her fate, dying a tragic death in the tower of London.

“Sumptuous...a fitting legacy for a pioneering conservationist who helped save thousands of acres of the Lake District” – The Mail on Sunday, August 2016 To this day, Beatrix Potter’s tales delight children and grown-ups around the world. But few people realise how extraordinary her own story is. She was a woman of contradictions. A sheltered Victorian daughter who grew into an astute modern businesswoman. A talented artist who became a scientific expert. A famous author who gave it all up to become a farmer. In The Story of Beatrix Potter, Sarah Gristwood follows the twists and turns of Beatrix Potter’s life and its key turning points – including her tragically brief first engagement and happy second marriage late in life. She traces the creation of Beatrix’s most famous characters – including the naughty Peter Rabbit, confused Jemima Puddleduck and cheeky Squirrel Nutkin – revealing how she drew on her unusual childhood pets and locations in her beloved Lake District. She explores too, the last 30 years of Potter’s life, when she abandoned books to become a working farmer and a pioneering conservationist, whose work with the National Trust helped to save thousands of acres of the Lake District – a legacy that, like her books, continues to enrich our lives today. Main text: 30,000 words. Approx 3,000 words for captions and index.

Sarah Gristwood's The Tudors in Love offers a brilliant history of the Tudor dynasty, showing how the rules of romantic courtly love irrevocably shaped the politics and international diplomacy of the period. Why did Henry VIII marry six times? Why did Anne Boleyn have to die? Why did Elizabeth I's courtiers hail her as a goddess come to earth? The dramas of courtly love have captivated centuries of readers and dreamers. Yet too often they're dismissed as something existing only in books and song--those old legends of King Arthur and chivalric fantasy. Not so. In this ground-breaking history, Sarah Gristwood reveals the way courtly love made and marred the Tudor dynasty. From Henry VIII declaring himself as the ‘loyal and most assured servant' of Anne Boleyn to the poems lavished on Elizabeth I by her suitors, the Tudors re-enacted the roles of the devoted lovers and capricious mistresses first laid out in the romances of medieval literature. The Tudors in Love dissects the codes of love, desire and power, unveiling romantic obsessions that have shaped the history of the world.

A historian describes the drama and family feuding within the Plantagenets, England's fifteenth-century ruling family, from the perspective of the mothers, wives and daughters who wove a web of loyalty and betrayal that ultimately gave way to the Tudors.

The true story of the White Queen and more, this is a thrilling history of the extraordinary noblewomen who lived through the Wars of the Roses.

A double biography of Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West, their friendship and love affair. Virginia Woolf is one of the world’s most famous writers – a leading light of literary modernism and feminism – and a British icon. During the 1920s she had a passionate affair with a fellow author, Vita Sackville-West, and they remained friends until Virginia’s death in 1941. The hero of Virginia’s novel Orlando was modeled on Vita and the book has been described as ‘one of the longest and most charming love letters in history’. That’s on top of the more than 500 letters they wrote to each other. Vita & Virginia is the extraordinary account of the work, friendship and love affair of two prolific novelists, who came to redefine conventions of femininity, sexuality, art and politics for the modern world. The cultural legacies of these formidable women, enduring icons of sexual equality and female emancipation, proliferate around us today – in fashion and television, film and literature. In this scrupulously researched examination of the pair's long friendship, the National Trust draws on their poetry and treasured correspondence to tell the story of this thoroughly modern affair. Both novelists have become closely associated with the National Trust. Vita is most famous today as the co-creator of Sissinghurst, one of the most influential and visited gardens in the world, while Monk’s House, Virginia’s retreat and inspiration, was a celebrated haunt of the Bloomsbury Group, that influential set of artists, thinkers and writers who lived in squares and loved in triangles.

Winston Churchill is one of the best-known and most revered figures of our time, the man who led Britain through its 'darkest hour'. The last year alone has seen two feature films of his life. Many books have been published about his life and work, but very few have looked at his life through the prism of the house he occupied for over 40 years. Chartwell is as fundamental to understanding Churchill as Hill Top is to Beatrix Potter. This Elizabethan manor – cared for by the National Trust today – was his inspiration, his refuge and his obsession. He had to rebuild the property almost from scratch after he bought it in 1922, spending money he could ill afford. Later he built a wall around the garden and several buildings by hand. ‘A day away from Chartwell is a day wasted,’ he once said. The book's introduction features a special section telling Churchill's life through ten special and unusual objects at Chartwell. Featuring many rarely seen photographs, one previously unpublished, this beautifully illustrated book has an incisive text by Sarah Gristwood and Margaret Gaskin. They trace every phase of his life – rebellious child, brave adventurer, political outcast, inspirational leader – always circling back to Chartwell, just as the great man himself did.

No item of clothing has endured for longer than the dress. Yet the last century alone has seen the most radical changes of style - hemlines swinging from ankle to thigh; outlines alternating between the body-hugging and the bell - and our fascination with the 'frock' has not gone away. From Gres’ draping to Dior’s New Look, from Mary Quant’s mini to Hussein Chalayan’s mechanical marvels, this book looks at the dress in twentieth century fashion. Thematic chapters – Changes, Feminine, Seduction, Must-haves, Fantasy, Classical and Art – set out the inspirations and implications for each new change alongside the stunning photography. It is more than eighty years since Coco Chanel invented the little black dress, but every woman still has one in her wardrobe today. It’s decades since women discovered trousers and separates, but every woman dreams of wearing a glorious, glamorous gown at least once, whether it’s on a Hollywood red carpet, or just on her wedding day. Fabulous Frocks is a book to fire a fashionista's imagination.

Provides a behind-the-scenes look at the motion picture with facsimilies of the shooting script and a section on costumes.

Few women's lives have described such an arc as that of Mary Robinson - or Perdita, as she was widely known. She began her career as an actress, royal mistress and possible blackmailer, and ended it just two decades later as a Romantic poet and early feminist thinker of note. She was the subject of paintings by Gainsborough and Reynolds, and of a hundred political cartoons. Variously portrayed as a wounded innocent and a harlot, she deliberately chose, in her later career, to make a political issue of her sexuality.Born in 1758 in the shadow of Bristol cathedral, she married at fifteen - one Thomas Robinson, an articled clerk of seemingly good family. But Mary had barely made her curtsey to society before discovering that Robinson was little better than a conman. As things grew worse, she followed her husband into debtors' prison, where she wrote her first book of poems. Encouraged by Sheridan and Garrick, who admired her beauty, she went on the stage, and over the next four years appeared in nearly forty plays before being cast as Perdita in A Winter's Tale. The performance was witnessed by the 17-year-old Prince of Wales, and they embarked on a widely satirized liaison that saw the prince offering to pay Mary £20,000 when he came of age. Mary had made her mark in fashionable Georgian high society and this, over the next two momentous decades, was where she contrived to stay.Mary's brief life saw a radical change in western society. Born at a time when women dressed their hair with powder and wore stiff brocade over whalebone, she died when simple muslin shifts clad women in comparative nudity; a sea change as abrupt as any before the advent of the mini-skirt. Above all, her career saw the moments when the French queen lost her head, and America declared independence. With all these events, Mary Robinson was associated; sometimes directly. This wonderful biography, vividly and compellingly told by the acclaimed biographer of Arbella Stuart, will explore Georgian England during a period of extreme political upheaval through the life of one extraordinary woman.

Isabel de castilla, Ana Bolena, Margarita Tudor, Catalina de Medicis, Ana de Francia, Margarita de Austria... Las mujeres que marcaron el mundo moderno. La Europa del siglo xvi contempló una explosión de poder femenino. Las mujeres tuvieron un poder sin precedentes. Isabel de Castilla, en traje de armadura, siguió a sus soldados al campo de batalla. Margaret de Austria y Luisa de Saboya, dos reinas regentes, pusieron fin a años de guerra con su «Paz de las Damas». Ana Bolena fue criada en la corte de Margarita de Austria, rodeada de mujeres poderosas; Su hija, Isabel Tudor, creció para ser una de las reinas más famosas de la historia. Con sus límites y sus decisiones, estas mujeres fueron también madres e hijas, mentoras y protegidas, aliadas y enemigos. Por primera vez, Europa vio una hermandad de mujeres que ejercían su autoridad de una manera exclusivamente femenina y que no se equipararía hasta los tiempos modernos. Una fascinante biografía de grupo y una emocionante epopeya política, Juego de reinas explora las vidas de algunas de las reinas más queridas (y vilipendiadas) de la historia. Desde el surgimiento de esta era de reinas hasta su eventual colapso, una cosa será ya cierta: Europa nunca sería la misma.

La Europa del siglo XVI contempló una explosión de poder femenino. Las mujeres tuvieron un poder sin precedentes. Isabel de Castilla, en traje de armadura, siguió a sus soldados al campo de batalla. Margaret de Austria y Luisa de Saboya, dos reinas regentes, pusieron fin a años de guerra con su «Paz de las Damas». Ana Bolena fue criada en la corte de Margarita de Austria, rodeada de mujeres poderosas; Su hija, Isabel Tudor, creció para ser una de las reinas más famosas de la historia. Con sus límites y sus decisiones, estas mujeres fueron también madres e hijas, mentoras y protegidas, aliadas y enemigos. Por primera vez, Europa vio una hermandad de mujeres que ejercían su autoridad de una manera exclusivamente femenina y que no se equipararía hasta los tiempos modernos. Una fascinante biografía de grupo y una emocionante epopeya política, Juego de reinas explora las vidas de algunas de las reinas más queridas (y vilipendiadas) de la historia. Desde el surgimiento de esta era de reinas hasta su eventual colapso, una cosa será ya cierta: Europa nunca sería la misma.

Holly Golightly was undoubtedly the role that made Audrey Hepburn a movie icon. Dressed by Hubert de Givenchy and holding the infamous cigarette holder, she played her most memorable part in Breakfast at Tiffany's. Adapted from the Truman Capote novella of the same name, the inspired cast took the screenplay and fashioned it into the touching comedy of a young woman finding her way in the world. 2011 was the 50th anniversary of the release of Breakfast at Tiffany's and this lavish book pays tribute to its ongoing popularity. The only official companion to be published in association with Paramount Pictures and the Audrey Hepburn estate, it includes favourite images from the film as well as unpublished behind the scenes footage from the Paramount archives, stories from the set, and a history of the screenplay since the hugely popular film. A celebration of a timeless classic, this is the perfect book for any fan of Hepburn or 1960s film-making.

Few women's lives have described such an arc as that of Mary Robinson. She began her career as an actress, became a royal mistress and possible blackmailer, and ended it just two decades later as a Romantic poet and early feminist thinker of note. She was painted by Gainsborough and Reynolds, and satirized by political cartoonists. Born in Bristol in 1758, she married at 15. But Mary had barely made her curtsey to society before discovering that Robinson was little better than a conman. She went with him to debtors' prison, where she wrote her first book of verse. Encouraged by Sheridan and Garrick, who admired her beauty, she went on the stage, where she was seen by the 17-year-old Prince of Wales, and they embarked on a widely satirized liaison. Mary had made her mark in fashionable Georgian society and this, over the next two momentous decades, was where she contrived to stay. This vivid and accessible biography explores Georgian England during a period of extreme political, social and cultural upheaval through the life of this remarkable woman.

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. As the queen draws near to the end of her life, with no heir to follow, the stakes are high.

'If you read one historical novel this year, make it THE QUEEN'S MARY by Sarah Gristwood. It's a superb fictional rendering of a difficult subject. I could not put it down.' - bestselling author Alison Weir Mary Seton is lady-in-waiting to the legendary Mary Queen of Scots. Torn between her own desires and her duty to serve her mistress, she is ultimately drawn into her Queen's web of passion and royal treachery - and must play her part in the game of thrones between Mary and Elizabeth I. Must she choose between survival, and sharing the same fate as the woman she has served, loyally and lovingly, since a child?The Queen's Mary is an engaging and insightful novel, which allows the reader to peek behind the curtain of history - and see into the heart and mind of a forgotten woman who helped shape the Tudor era. For fans of Phillipa Gregory, Alison Weir and The Tudors. Praise for The Queen's Mary 'Sarah Gristwood breathes new life into the deeply tragic story of Mary Queen of Scots by telling it through the perspective of the invisible woman who sacrificed her life to serve her.' Elizabeth Freemantle, bestselling author of The Girl in the Glass Tower 'I really enjoyed this book. I have never read anything about Mary Seton (or the other Marys), and I found this book to be not only a touching and insightful look into what it must have been like to be at Queen Mary's side throughout her life, but beautifully drawn historically.' - Kate Grannis, author of Love's Vows Praise for Sarah Gristwood 'Vivacious and absorbing ... Gristwood is a mistress of the trivial detail that enthrals' - The Sunday Times 'Well researched and stimulating' - Evening Standard 'Fresh, vivid and beautifully detailed . . . Much of the narrative is high melodrama, and Gristwood conveys it with exactly the right mixture of suspense and sympathy.'- Independent 'Pacey and highly readable' - Mail on Sunday After leaving Oxford, Sarah Gristwood began work as a journalist, appearing in most of the UK's leading newspapers. Turning to history, she wrote bestselling biographies and works of fiction and nonfiction, predominantly focused on the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. A regular media commentator on royal and historical affairs, Sarah was one of the team providing Radio 4's live coverage of the royal wedding; and has since spoken on royal and historical stories from the royal babies to the reburial of Richard III for national television and radio. Shortlisted for both the Marsh Biography Award and the Ben Pimlott Prize for Political Writing, she is a Fellow of the RSA, and an Honorary Patron of Historic Royal Palaces.