Tudor Women

Frenchwoman Avril Montdidier is on a mission: to emigrate to Australia and start her own fashion business, leaving the tragedies of the Second World War behind her. She has family in Melbourne and an apprenticeship at Dior in Paris under her tailored belt, so the future seems bright. Avril settles into 1950s Melbourne and makes friends and contacts for her business-to-be. But just as she's ready to begin, an event in her personal life forces her to make the difficult decision to flee to a cattle station in southern Queensland to work as a nanny. It is here Avril meets Tim.

It's 1527 and Hans Holbein is welcomed as a guest at the splendid Chelsea home of Sir Thomas More to paint the family portrait. Unknown to them, it is the dawn of a tumultuous time in English history, affecting the family as well as Tudor society. Meg Griggs, a foster daughter of More, attracts the attention of two people, one of them being Holbein. She marries one - but loves the other.

Mieux connue comme la fiancée d'Azincourt d'Henri V, de la pièce Henri V de Shakespeare, Catherine de Valois était une femme de foi, courage et conviction extraordinaire dans un âge de femmes puissantes politiquement. La plus jeune fille du roi Charles VI de France terrorisé par sa maladie mentale, Catherine de Valois survécut les ravages de sa schizophrénie, une guerre civile dans son pays, et la guerre d'Henri V contre la France pour devenir une des reines les plus courageuses et fascinantes de la Renaissance.

For centuries, the most beautiful, able and aristocratic women in England competed for positions at court. Some who came to serve were remarkable for their learning and exemplary virtue, but others were notable for promiscuity and lack of scruple, drawn to court by a lust for money and power. Several ladies-in-waiting became royal mistresses, showing few qualms about betraying the queen consorts they ostensibly served.

In modern-day London, architectural historian and recovering alcoholic Annie Kendall hopes to turn her life around and restart her career by locating several long-missing pieces of ancient Judaica. Geoff Harris, an investigative reporter, is soon drawn into her quest, both by romantic interest and suspicions about the head of the Shalom Foundation, the organization sponsoring her work. He's also a dead ringer for the ghost of a monk Annie believes she has seen at the flat she is subletting in Bristol House.

As she is seventh in line to the throne, sixteen-year-old Lady Margaret Clifford knows her marriage should be an important one. Which is why she is shocked to learn her father has agreed to entertain a proposal from a mere knight. Sir Andrew Dudley is a court favorite and joins the ranks of the Duke of Northumberland's family who are attempting to secure politically advantageous marriages. With the boy-king Edward VI failing to secure a marriage of his own and produce an heir, it is clear the Dudleys are plotting a path to the throne.

The critically acclaimed author of Serving Victoria brilliantly illuminates the life of the little-known Bess of Hardwick - next to Queen Elizabeth I, the richest and most powerful woman in 16th-century England.

Dakota Wynfred will stop at nothing to prevent the reelection of the vile United States president, Robert Vlakas, who wants to nationalize her cybersecurity company and simultaneously set fire to the Constitution. And that includes finding a champion who can defeat him in the 2028 presidential election. But it won't be easy because Dakota's champion of choice—though brilliant, politically savvy, charming, and tough enough to survive multiple assassination attempts—happens to have been dead for over 400 years.

1586, London: Covert espionage agent Kit Scarlett is once again tasked with defending Queen Elizabeth against an assassination attempt. With the attacks on the queen's life mounting, Kit and spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham know they need to find a firm link between these deadly plots and Mary Queen of Scots. But Kit is also keen to investigate a more personal matter. Her espionage partner, Iohmar Blackwood, did not return from his last mission set by Walsingham and has not been seen for a year.

The idea of a powerful woman in the Middle Ages seems like an oxymoron. Females in this time are imagined to be damsels in distress, trapped in a high tower, and waiting for knights to rescue them, all while wearing traffic-cones for a hat. After rescue, their lives improved little. Their career choices were to be either docile queens, housewives, or be burned at the stake for witchcraft. But what if this image of medieval women is a complete fiction? It turns out that it is. Powerful female rulers fill the Middle Ages.

Spanish Netherlands, 1620s: raised by her father Lucas to know her mind, Antonia Vorsterman sees everything that goes on in her world—all the rivalries and jealousies that course through the artists' studios and workshops of Antwerp. Drawn into the lively household of the artist Peter Paul Rubens, whose work her father engraves for a living, Antonia begins to see a life of colour and possibility for herself—until Lucas entrusts her with a terrible secret that will alter the course of their family's future.

When beautiful and successful Susan Harris jumps from the roof of her apartment building, she sets a tremor through her New York City mothers’ group that forces them all to look at one another with new cynicism: How could this have happened right under their noses? To one of them? Between her death and the harrowing private school admission season on the horizon, these women are forced to explore the hard truths about themselves.

The Hickory Creek Community Centre is a lifeline for new mums. So when a bad case of black mould threatens to end the only women's services available in their small town, a new mothers' group bands together to save it. Their plan? Create a fundraiser calendar featuring themselves ... in the nude. As the mothers bare all, it doesn't take long for them to start baring their secrets too.

When multi-millionaire Jacki Turner is forced to take stock of her life, she sets her daughters a challenge - in order to inherit her vast fortune, each must fulfil a task that she believes will push them to become better versions of themselves. Rose, an exhausted mother of three, must write and publish a children's picture book. Exercise-hater Mel must run the Gold Coast marathon. Isla, the eldest, must figure out who she is beyond her wealth and status, while commitment-phobic Jess must stay in a relationship for longer than three months.

Lady Jane Grey never wanted the crown. She barely had time to wear it. While history remembers her reign in days, this short book remembers the girl. Lady Jane Grey was only 16 when she was handed the throne of England like a poisoned chalice. Sharp-witted, highly educated, and utterly unprepared for royal life, Jane found herself thrust into the deadliest game the Tudors ever played. Nine days later, it was all over... except the part where they lopped off her head.

A refugee from a bad marriage, Grace has been single for 20 years and isn't looking to hook up with a man who at first reminds her too much of her ex-husband. But working together week after week, she soon finds herself playing out erotic scenes in her mind - with Ben as the star. The problem is her imagination only leaves her longing for the man himself.