Caterina

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LILLIBULLERO
Robert Neill
Early in his writing career Robert Neill was acclaimed by C. P. Snow in The Sunday Times as 'a born story-teller', and since the publication in 1951 of his first novel Mist Over Pendle, which is now in its ninth impression, Mr. Neill has consistently strengthened his reputation as a major historical novelist. It has always been the experience of ordinary people living through the great events of their times which has fascinated him, and each of his stories is not so much set against the political background as interwoven with it.
In Lillibullero Robert Neill continues his series about the Stuart era and moves into the reign of James II. All his life Hal Burnaby, whom we last met in The Golden Days, has been firmly loyal to Church and King—but now the times have changed. King James—a Roman Catholic of high and arbitrary temper—is on the throne, and Hal finds it impossible to serve both Church and King. Hal's sons too are caught... Tovább

Fülszöveg

Also from St. Martin's
LILLIBULLERO
Robert Neill
Early in his writing career Robert Neill was acclaimed by C. P. Snow in The Sunday Times as 'a born story-teller', and since the publication in 1951 of his first novel Mist Over Pendle, which is now in its ninth impression, Mr. Neill has consistently strengthened his reputation as a major historical novelist. It has always been the experience of ordinary people living through the great events of their times which has fascinated him, and each of his stories is not so much set against the political background as interwoven with it.
In Lillibullero Robert Neill continues his series about the Stuart era and moves into the reign of James II. All his life Hal Burnaby, whom we last met in The Golden Days, has been firmly loyal to Church and King—but now the times have changed. King James—a Roman Catholic of high and arbitrary temper—is on the throne, and Hal finds it impossible to serve both Church and King. Hal's sons too are caught in the web of events. John is in the service of the Princess Anne and does not know where this will lead him; Harry, in the Foot Guards, has a soldier's loyalties to think of; only Nicholas, beginning as a barrister, thinks he may be free to choose. It is through Nick's eyes that we see the end of the tale, and the Glorious Revolution which puts William and Mary on the throne.
CATERINA by Bridget Boland
Caterina is tlie colourful story of how Caterina Sforza, legitimated daughter of the murdered Duke of Milan, grew from a gentle and loving child married at 14 to a Pope's son to become the powerful and feared ruler whom Machiavelli was to describe as 'one of the greatest princes of her time.' She is one of the most extraordinary women in history; liberated, contradictory, passionate, and her tale, set in the brilliant and violent years of 15th century Italy, when City States waged savage wars against their neighbours while at the same time beautifying their streets and churches with the glories of early Renaissance architecture and art, makes one of the most remarkable historical novels published in a long time.
bridget boland has traced the development of this dazzling and bewildering woman whose beauty was celebrated all over Europe from happy childhood among a litter of half-brothers and sisters in the palace nursery in Milan, through her diplomatic marriage to an arrogant bully, to the assertion of her own power in defence of herself and her children. In a dangerous world, where the Pope occupied himself with building the Sistine Chapel and left his boorish sons to rule Rome until their private armies made the city unsafe to move about in, Caterina not only survived, but became a great diplomat, a general who actually led her own troops into battle, and a beloved leader. Her clothes were the gossip of all the courts of Italy, yet she would not think twice about pawning all her jewels when the need arose, or of sealing up a (continued on back flap)
(continued from front flap) walled city where the plague raged— with herself inside it. She loved passionately, hated fiercely, was terrible in vengeance; yet she was as skilled in exquisite embroidery or at devising gardens as at fortifying castles or outriding her court at hunting and hawking. The dazzling background and many-faceted personality of the heroine combine to make this an exhilarating novel which will delight all who enjoy adventure, passion, and intrigue.
bridget boland is the daughter of an Irish barrister and M.P. and wrote her first novel on coming down from Oxford at the age of 21. In 1938 she started her career as a screenwriter which still continues, working mostly in England but also in Hollywood and Rome. Her film successes include the classic Gaslight, War and Peace, and Anne of the Thousand Days, for which she won an Academy Awards nomination and the Golden Globe (Hollywood critics) Award. Serving in the War Office 1942-46, she wrote official plays on Current Affairs for the troops, which led to her first commercial play, Cockpit in 1949 (filmed as The Lost People), which astonished London by using the whole theatre as its setting. Among several others her most successful was The Prisoner (also filmed), in which Alec Guinness gave one of his greatest performances as a Cardinal in an Iron Curtain country.
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