Mary Tudor

In the summer of 1553, against all odds, Mary Tudor was the first woman to be crowned Queen of England. Anna Whitelock's absorbing debut tells the remarkable story of a woman who was a princess one moment, and a disinherited bastard the next. It tells of her Spanish heritage and the unbreakable bond between Mary and her mother, Katherine of Aragon; of her childhood, adolescence, rivalry with her sister Elizabeth and finally her womanhood. Throughout her life Mary was a fighter, battling to preserve her integrity and her right to hear the Catholic mass. Finally, she fought for the throne. The Mary that emerges from this groundbreaking biography is not the weak-willed failure of traditional narratives, but a complex figure of immense courage, determination and humanity.

'An impressive and powerful debut' David Starkey Whitelock offers an unforgettable picture of Mary alone in darkness, waiting for labour to begin for a child that never was ... Her book gives us a woman who met impossible challenges with courage and conviction' Diane Purkiss, Financial Times 'A rollercoaster of a story' Antonia Fraser, Mail on Sunday 'Whitelock's fine new biography tells, instead, the story of the road that Mary did take, from cradle to throne' Sunday Telegraph

Anna Whitelock gained her PhD in History from Corpus Christi College, Cambridge in 2004 with a thesis on the court of Mary I. Her articles and book reviews on various aspects of Tudor history have appeared in publications including the Guardian, the Times Literary Supplement and BBC History. She has taught at Cambridge University and is now a lecturer in Early Modern History at Royal Holloway, University of London.