A Daughter's Love

A Daughter's Love

Thomas and Margaret More - The Family Who Dared to Defy Henry VIII

Summary

Leading British historian John Guy, author of Thomas Becket and My Heart is My Own, uncovers one of the most touching and compelling family relationships in history in A Daughter's Love.

Sir Thomas More is a stalwart figure of British history. Lord Chancellor in Henry Tudor's government, opposed to Henry VIII's marriage to Anne Boleyn and famously executed for treason, he is a well-studied and eminent figure.

John Guy's revealing new work sheds light on a little known aspect of More, as a politician and as a man. His daughter Margaret played a key role in More's private and public life, but has been all but hidden from his story.

Neglected from previous historical works, A Daughter's Love uses original sources to reveal a deep and loving relationship between father and daughter. Margaret, a prodigy encouraged by her father, was highly skilled in Latin and Greek, even emending texts from the prominent scholar Erasmus. She became her father's advisor, confidante and friend, exchanging long, loving letters during his incarceration and providing comfort in his final hours. It is these letters, which she smuggled from the Tower, that provide compelling new insights into the famed politician.

A Daughter's Love is a riveting new portrait of Thomas More and the daughter who played a central role in his life and work, from one of Britain's most acclaimed historians.

'An arresting reassessment . . . An outstanding talent for stop-the-reader-dead-in-their-tracks gripping storytelling. Guy's convincing page-turner of a double life has restored my faith in biography as a genre' Lisa Jardine, Sunday Times

'Gripping . . . Guy's scholarship is irreproachable' Independent on Sunday

'Brilliantly observed and told . . . [Guy's] absorbing, thoroughly researched book does justice to two exemplary women - and reminds us that history is full of ironies' Claire Tomalin, The New York Times

John Guy is an award-winning historian, accomplished broadcaster and a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge. His previous books include My Heart is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots, winner of the 2004 Whitbread Biography Award and the Marsh Biography Award, a history, Tudor England, which has sold over 250,000 copies worldwide and a biography of Thomas Becket published in 2012.

About the author

John Guy

John Guy is a Fellow of Clare College, University of Cambridge. His bestselling books include A Daughter's Love: Thomas and Margaret More, Thomas Becket: Warrior, Priest, Rebel, Victim: A 900-Year-Old Story Retold, Tudor England, The Children of Henry VIII, and 'My Heart is My Own': the Life of Mary Queen of Scots, which won the Whitbread Biography Award and the Marsh Biography Award. He appears regularly on BBC radio and television.
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