Margaret Irwin's great trilogy of novels about the life of 'Good Queen Bess', Elizabeth I, begins with her childhood. At three, her mother, Anne Boleyn, is executed for adultery, incest and witchcraft, Elizabeth declared a bastard and banished from her father's Court. She is restored by Henry VIII's last wife, Katherine Parr, who, after the King's death, marries Tom Seymour. But he is playing for higher stakes. Marrying widowed queen is one thing, marrying the King's daughter and second in line to the throne is another. Seymour courts the adolescent Elizabeth who finds herself dangerously attracted to him. He loses his head whilst she, with the death of her brother, Edward VI, faces a perilous and uncertain future.