Editions

The Marriage Game

  • Imprint: Arrow

  • ISBN: 9780099534624

  • Length: 432  Pages

  • Dimensions: 198mm x 27mm x 129mm

  • Weight: 298g

  • RRP: £8.99

The Marriage Game

Bestselling historian Alison Weir brings Elizabeth I to vivid life in a novel of intrigue, sex, plots, mysteries and tragedies, amid all the colour and pageantry of the Tudor court.

'[Weir] gets right inside the head of the Virgin Queen. The reader has a blissful sense of seeing history as it happens.' - Kate Saunders, The Times

It was an affair that shocked the world.

Elizabeth I is the most sought-after bride in Europe. But though she is formidably intelligent, brave and tempestuous, she is desperately insecure. The tragic events in her past mean she cannot give herself to any man, and yet she relishes the thrill of the chase, the lure of forbidden fruit.

And so, using sex and high-powered diplomacy, she plays what becomes known as the 'Marriage Game', dangling suitors to keep them friendly to her kingdom, while holding them off indefinitely.
But playing this tantalising game with the married Robert Dudley, the son and grandson of traitors, could cost her the throne…

  • Imprint: Arrow

  • ISBN: 9780099534624

  • Length: 432  Pages

  • Dimensions: 198mm x 27mm x 129mm

  • Weight: 298g

  • RRP: £8.99

Reviews

  • [Weir] gets right inside the head of the Virgin Queen. The reader has a blissful sense of seeing history as it happens.

    Kate Saunders, The Times

  • Politics, historical detail and unfulfilled love in Alison Weir's endlessly fascinating account of Elizabeth I's attempt reconcile her personal passions with public life . . . The sheer weight of Weir’s scholarship underpins the narrative, making it endlessly fascinating.

    Sunday Express

  • The captivating, tempestuous, often hilarious and ultimately poignant story of the extraordinary love affair between Elizabeth I and Robert Dudley

    Historical Novel Review

  • With the vogue for Tudor history at its height, this is a brilliant novel that focuses on the volatile relationship with Elizabeth I and the charismatic Lord Dudley.

    Woman and Home

  • Based on in-depth knowledge of Elizabeth’s court, and the intrigues that swirled around it, the novel has the benefit of both verisimilitude and captivating story-telling.

    Choice Magazine

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About the Author

Alison Weir

Alison Weir is one of Britain’s top-selling historians. She is the author of numerous works of history and historical fiction, specialising in the medieval and Tudor periods. Her bestselling history books include The Six Wives of Henry VIII, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Elizabeth of York and The Lost Tudor Princess. Her novels include Innocent Traitor, Katherine of Aragon: The True Queen and Anne Boleyn: A King's Obsession. She is an Honorary Life Patron of Historic Royal Palaces and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She lives and works in Surrey.

Alison Weir

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Features

Alison Weir on writing about England's medieval queens

Queens of the Conquest is the first in a new series exploring the fascinating lives of England’s medieval queens. Alison Weir explains why she found it important to write about these extraordinary women

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