Description

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1445. King Henry VI is married by proxy to Margaret of Anjou. French, beautiful and unpopular, her marriage causes a national uproar.

At the same time, the infant Margaret Beaufort is made a great heiress and suddenly becomes the most important commodity in the nation. Her childhood is lived in remote, echoing castles, while everyone at King Henry's court competes to be her guardian and engineer an advantageous alliance with her uncle, the Duke of Somerset.

With the collapse of Henry VI's hold on France, discord among the English nobles breaks out into civil war. Henry becomes the mad king, and Margaret of Anjou declares herself Queen Regent, left alone to fight for her son's position as rightful heir. Meanwhile, Margaret Beaufort, although still little more than a child at thirteen, has been married twice and given birth to her only son—the future King of England.

Succession is an imaginative and engrossing novel about the events that inspired George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. It's the story of the fall of the House of Lancaster and of the two remarkable women who gave birth to the Tudor dynasty. The dramatic plot is supplemented with short chronicles that were written at the time, further rooting readers in the history.

About the Author

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Livi Michael has published four novels for adults, including, All the Dark Air (1997) which was short-listed for the Mind Award, and Inheritance, which won a Society of Authors award. She teaches literature at the Manchester Metropolitan University and has been a senior lecturer in creative writing at Sheffield Hallam University.

Praise For…

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"Livi Michael’s lively historical novel, “Succession,” portrays something of a ­female-centric vision of the Wars of the Roses. The action centers on two ferocious women who stood behind — and sometimes in front of — prominent men...Michael paints the Middle Ages in spare and elegant prose. "— The New York Times Book Review

"Livi Michael engages meticulously with the diverse historical accounts of the Wars of the Roses, but she also invests intimate and poignant humanity into the personal tragedies of an era wrought with conflict and terror."-Elizabeth Fremantle, author of Queen's Gambit

“Succession is a powerfully written account of the 15th-century Wars of the Roses…finely balanced between history and fiction, and a fascinating, riveting read.”– Historical Novel Society

“Clever…the narrative has the colour and power of the best of the chronicles she uses.”– Sunday Times (UK)

"Juxtaposing illuminating contemporary accounts of the Wars of the Roses with breathtaking insights into the minds of the principal players, Succession puts the conflict into a compelling context whilst exploring the human cost of the bloody, bitter birth of the Tudor dynasty....An impressive and exciting debut."-Lancashire Evening Post (UK)