In an age where all politics were family politics, dynastic marriages placed English queens at the very centre of power – the king’s bed. “ scintillating read and vivid picture of the age.” – Sunday ExpressĮngland’s medieval queens were elemental in shaping the history of the nation. “Hilton’s style is…positively edible.” – The Observer “Hilton’s book is refreshing both in the lightness of its touch and the vividness of its descriptions… This is a portrait of an age, written with gaiety and an irreverence that would have delighted John Gay and his friends.” – The Sunday Times Lavinia gave the Duke three sons, but when she was left a widow she chose her own way once more, and scandalously threw away their fortunes on her younger lover. The Duke was determined to make her his mistress, and she agreed to elope with him, exchanging the rackety glamour of life as London’s most celebrated actress for twenty years of retirement. Raised in a Charing Cross coffee-house, Lavinia became an actress, and though she was a newcomer to the stage when she was chosen to star as Polly, her combination of a sweet voice, a pretty face and a knowledge of the seamier side of London life made the role her own.īoth Lavinia and the play were overnight sensations, but she enjoyed only a few months of fame before she caught the eye of the Duke of Bolton, a married, indolent and childless aristocrat. Mistress Peachum was Lavinia Fenton, an eighteenth-century actress who was the original Polly Peachum in John Gay’s play The Beggar’s Opera and became the Duchess of Bolton. “A witty and wonderful woman’s-eye view of three of history’s most maligned female power brokers” – Hallie Rubenhold, 2020 Baillie-Gifford-Prize-winning author of The Five

“Clever, droll and fabulous – a thought-provoking blend of history, fable and glamour” – Lucy Worsley, historian What follows is a reassessment of the past, in which deeds and reputations, rumours and reality are held up to the light, and history is wrested back from the distortions of misogyny. And isn’t it time, they ask, for a new author to take up the pen?

Having found themselves barred from the original ‘City of Ladies’, they want to know why. Over 600 years later, the historian and novelist Lisa Hilton picks up the book and promptly falls asleep, only to be visited by three great women from history: Cleopatra, Lucrezia Borgia and Catherine the Great. In it the author is visited by three spirits – Justice, Rectitude and Reason – who guide her in sifting through countless lives, in search of worthy citizens.

Her book, The City of Ladies, was built around preserving women’s reputations from the slights and misunderstandings of history.

In 1405 Christine de Pisan took up the pen to defend her maligned sex.

Wolves in Winter by Lisa Hilton