Audiobooks by Elizabeth Fremantle

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable, audiobook edition of The Girl In The Glass Tower by Elizabeth Fremantle, read by Rachael Stirling and Emily Watson. Fremantle's The Girl in the Glass Tower is a stunning historical thriller set in the chaos leading up to the death of Elizabeth I. Tap. Tap. Tap on the window. Something, someone wanting to be heard. Waiting to be free. Tudor England. The word treason is on everyone's lips. Arbella Stuart, niece to Mary, Queen of Scots and presumed successor to Elizabeth I, has spent her youth behind the towering windows of Hardwick Hall. As presumed successor to the throne, her isolation should mean protection - but those close to the crown are never safe. Aemilia Lanyer - writer and poet - enjoys an independence denied to Arbella. Their paths should never cross. But when Arbella enlists Aemilia's help in a bid for freedom, she risks more than her own future. Ensnared in another woman's desperate schemes, Aemilia must tread carefully or share her terrible fate . . . The Girl in the Glass Tower brilliantly explores what it means to be born a woman in a man's world, where destiny is strictly controlled and the smallest choices may save - or destroy - us. Praise for Elizabeth Fremantle: 'If you read one Tudor tome this summer, make it this one. Fascinating and vividly drawn, the ending is heartbreaking' The Times 'Book of the Month' 'A top-notch literary thriller. Shots are fired, troths are plighted, sea voyages taken, escapes dared and mysteries solved' Daily Telegraph 'A glamourous tale peopled by warrior poets, flamboyant courtiers and shameless loves, it is also sharp, perceptive and dramatic' Sunday Express 'Arbella Stuart was a pawn, at the mercy of the powerful people around her. Hers is a sad and moving tale, and Fremantle tells it beautifully' History Girls 'Beautifully written, completely engrossing and a book that stays with you after the pages are closed. Highly recommended' Historia 'Fremantle shows how dangerous it was being closely related to Elizabeth I. A cracking read' Prima

E C Fremantle, Elizabeth Fremantle (Author), Emily Watson, Rachael Stirling (Narrator)

Audiobook

Watch the Lady: A Novel

From "a brilliant new player in the court of royal fiction" (People), comes the mesmerizing story of Lady Penelope Devereux-the daring young beauty in the Tudor court, who inspired Sir Philip Sidney's famous sonnets even while she plotted against Queen Elizabeth.Penelope Devereux arrives at Queen Elizabeth's court where she and her brother, the Earl of Essex, are drawn into the aging Queen's favor. Young and naïve, Penelope, though promised elsewhere, falls in love with Philip Sidney who pours his heartbreak into the now classic sonnet series Astrophil and Stella. But Penelope is soon married off to a man who loathes her. Never fainthearted, she chooses her moment and strikes a deal with her husband: after she gives birth to two sons, she will be free to live as she chooses, with whom she chooses. But she is to discover that the course of true love is never smooth. Meanwhile Robert Cecil, ever loyal to Elizabeth, has his eye on Penelope and her brother. Although it seems the Earl of Essex can do no wrong in the eyes of the Queen, as his influence grows, so his enemies gather. Penelope must draw on all her political savvy to save her brother from his own ballooning ambition and Cecil's trap, while daring to plan for an event it is treason even to think about. Unfolding over the course of two decades and told from the perspectives of Penelope and her greatest enemy, the devious politician Cecil, Watch the Lady chronicles the last gasps of Elizabeth's reign, and the deadly scramble for power in a dying dynasty.

Elizabeth Fremantle (Author), Georgina Sutton, Roy McMillan (Narrator)

Audiobook

Watch the Lady

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable, audio edition of Watch the Lady by Elizabeth Fremantle, read by Georgina Sutton and Roy McMillan. Penelope Devereux is a legendary beauty in the court of Elizabeth but it's not just her looks which mark her apart. With her canny instinct for being in the right place at the right time, and her skilled political manipulation, she has become a formidable adversary to anyone who stands in her path. And now, Penelope must secure the future of the Devereux dynasty at whatever cost. Even treason. For the Queen is just one more pawn in a deadly game.

E C Fremantle, Elizabeth Fremantle (Author), Georgina Sutton, Roy McMillan (Narrator)

Audiobook

Sisters of Treason: A Novel

From the author of Queen's Gambit, which People magazine called, "A must-read for Philippa Gregory fans," a gripping historical novel about two sisters who tread as dangerously close to the crown as their tragic sister, Lady Jane Grey, executed after just nine days on the throne.Early in Mary Tudor's turbulent reign, Lady Catherine and Lady Mary Grey are reeling after the brutal execution of their elder seventeen-year-old sister, Lady Jane Grey, and the succession is by no means stable. In Sisters of Treason, Elizabeth Freemantle brings these young women to life in a spellbinding Tudor tale of love and politics. Neither sister is well suited to a dangerous life at court. Flirtatious Lady Catherine, thought to be the true heir, cannot control her compulsion to love and be loved. Her sister, clever Lady Mary, has a crooked spine and a tiny stature in an age when physical perfection equates to goodness-and both girls have inherited the Tudor blood that is more curse than blessing. For either girl to marry without royal permission would be a potentially fatal political act. It is the royal portrait painter, Levina Teerlinc, who helps the girls survive these troubled times. She becomes their mentor and confidante, but when the Queen's sister, the hot-headed Elizabeth, inherits the crown, life at court becomes increasingly treacherous for the surviving Grey sisters. Ultimately each young woman must decide how far she will go to defy her Queen, risk her life, and find the safety and love she longs for. From "a brilliant new player in the court of royal fiction," (People) Sisters of Treason brings to vivid life the perilous and romantic lives of two little known young women who played a major role in the complex politics of their day.

Elizabeth Fremantle (Author), Georgina Sutton, Teresa Gallagher (Narrator)

Audiobook

Sisters of Treason

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Sisters of Treason by Elizabeth Fremantle. Lady Jane Grey has just been executed by her cousin Mary Tudor and her two younger sisters, Mary and Catherine, live in the shadow of their sister's tragic demise. Lady Catherine's fatal flaw is her compulsive desire for love, while clever Lady Mary is burdened with a crooked spine and tiny stature - and both have inherited the curse of royal blood. It is court painter Levina Teerlinc who helps the girls survive Mary Tudor's reign, but when the Queen's sister, the hot-headed Elizabeth, inherits the crown, court life becomes increasingly treacherous for the Grey girls . . .

E C Fremantle, Elizabeth Fremantle (Author), Georgina Sutton, Rachel Bavidge, Teresa Gallagher (Narrator)

Audiobook

Queen's Gambit: A Novel

Twice widowed by 31, beautiful and intelligent, Katherine Parr, is obliged to return to Henry VIII's court, but suspicious of the aging king and those who surround him, she does so with reluctance. She brings her stepdaughter, Meg, who has been traumatized as a prisoner of war, and her servant Dot, an innocent who carries secrets for Katherine and Meg. When Katherine finds herself caught up in a passionate affair with the dashing and seductive Thomas Seymour, she believes she might finally be able to marry for love. But her presence at court has attracted the attentions of another. Captivated by her honesty and intelligence, Henry Tudor has his own plans for Katherine. The king has already murdered two wives, lost one to childbirth, and banished two to lives of isolation and poverty, but no woman can refuse his proposal. So with her lover dispatched to the continent, Katherine must accept the hand of the ailing, egotistical monarch and become Henry’s sixth wife. Committed to religious reform, and ever aware of the fate of his previous queens, Katherine must draw upon all her instincts and intellect to navigate the treachery of the court. With the Catholic faction once more in the ascendency, reformers burned for heresy and those around the dying king vying for position in the new regime, her survival seems unlikely as she walks the knife-edge of court politics, never quite giving up on love. Dot sees everything that happens in the queen's chamber, until she is caught smuggling heretical papers for the queen and is thrown into prison where she prepares to met the torturer. Queen's Gambit takes the reader straight into the heart of the Tudor court and Katherine Parr's brave and conflicted heart.

Elizabeth Fremantle (Author), Elizabeth Fremantle (Narrator)

Audiobook