{"title":"Linda Porter","description":"\u003cp\u003eLinda Porter's works transport readers to rich historical landscapes, blending meticulous research with compelling narrative. Her books illuminate the lives behind the grand events, revealing the personal dramas and intricate relationships that shaped history.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWith a focus on biography and memoir, Porter explores intriguing figures and eras with depth and sensitivity. Readers can expect evocative storytelling that brings history vividly to life, from the courts of royalty to the complexities of war and power.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"the-thistle-and-the-rose-by-linda-porter-9781801105781","title":"The Thistle and The Rose","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMargaret, the first Tudor princess and queen consort and queen regent of Scotland, is the forgotten Tudor. Yet, the elder sister of Henry VIII led a life of great drama, composed in equal parts of privilege and pain, highlighted by personal danger, hardship and loss. Overlooked or dismissed by historians as ‘Henry VIII in a dress’ (not, in itself, necessarily an insult), Margaret has been ill-served by superficial biographies or heavy-handed academic attempts to paint her as an early feminist prototype.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eYet recent research has revealed a quite different woman from the popular image of an oversexed whinger, whose main interests were her wardrobe and attractive young men. The child-woman who, at the age of thirteen, married James IV of Scotland, one of the most charismatic of all British kings, became a successful queen consort, presiding over a colourful and cultured court at some of Scotland’s most beautiful palaces. James' death at the disastrous battle of Flodden in 1513 transformed Margaret’s world, forcing her to make stark choices for which she has been roundly condemned. But her two spells as regent for her young son, James V, and her determination to manage the fractious relationship between England and Scotland, reveal a true dynast with considerable diplomatic skills, as well as a loving mother committed to the welfare of her son amidst the swirling currents of Scottish politics and family feuds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Thistle and the Rose\u003c\/i\u003e reveals a woman who was a gifted politician and diplomatist. It tells a story of sibling rivalry between Margaret and her brother, Henry VIII, going back to their childhoods, underlined by Henry’s ambivalent attitude to his sister’s welfare and his refusal to acknowledge her son, the nearest male to him in blood until 1537, as his heir.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIt will also explore Margaret’s disastrous second marriage to Archibald Douglas, earl of Angus, and her third, little-known marriage to Henry Stewart. Her desperate flight to England while heavily pregnant in 1515 and her year-long reunion with her brother and sister, Mary, will also receive the attention they deserve, as will her relationships with her wayward daughter, Margaret Douglas, and her son’s two French wives. Margaret’s tragedy is that of a mother whose affection was not returned by her children and who has been belittled by history. Her triumph, on the other hand, is that of a true Tudor who had made a significant contribution to the culture and politics of her time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Allen \u0026 Unwin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46851499393260,"sku":"9781801105781","price":49.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/7157903482829.jpg?v=1759101362"},{"product_id":"the-thistle-and-the-rose-by-linda-porter-9781801105798","title":"The Thistle and The Rose","description":"\u003cp\u003eMargaret Tudor, the elder sister of her more famous brother Henry VIII, is the single most important Tudor figure of this era that historians have consistently overlooked. Married at thirteen to the charismatic James IV of Scotland, a man more than twice her age, she would learn the skills of statecraft that would enable her to survive his early death, and to construct a powerful position in her adopted country of Scotland as she dealt with domestic issues as well as navigating international relations with England and France.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOften reviled for her hasty remarriage (and therefore the loss of the regency) the book shows that Margaret was damned if she did remarry and damned if she didn’t. Her two subsequent marriages were both disastrous personally, but she never gave up. Her son attained the throne in his own right in 1528, largely through his mother’s determination.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMargaret’s story is also one of fierce sibling rivalry with her younger brother, Henry VIII, a series of matrimonial mishaps, and fighting off an unearned reputation as an over-sexed whinger fixated by clothes and jewels, Margaret was a complex (not always likeable) woman who had the true Tudor attributes of self-expression and a flair for the dramatic. She knew that you had to look like a queen.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDrawing on Margaret’s extensive correspondence (more of her letters survive than of all the other Tudor queens put together), and contemporary poems and literature, Linda Porter fashions a compelling story of a misunderstood and underestimated Tudor monarch, whose determination to fight for the rights of her son, James V, is at the core of her dramatic life and indeed laid the groundwork for a future British state.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Allen \u0026 Unwin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47289030213868,"sku":"9781801105798","price":57.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/7158073482829.jpg?v=1770585267"},{"product_id":"mistresses-by-linda-porter-9781509877072","title":"Mistresses","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAccording to the great diarist, John Evelyn, Charles II was 'addicted to women', and throughout his long reign a great many succumbed to his charms. Clever, urbane and handsome, Charles presided over a hedonistic court, in which licence and licentiousness prevailed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eMistresses\u003c\/em\u003e is the story of the women who shared Charles's bed, each of whom wielded influence on both the politics and cultural life of the country. From the young king-in-exile's first mistress and mother to his first child, Lucy Walter, to the promiscuous and ill-tempered courtier, Barbara Villiers. From Frances Teresa Stuart, 'the prettiest girl in the world' to history's most famous orange-seller, 'pretty, witty' Nell Gwynn, and to her fellow-actress, Moll Davis, who bore the last of the king's fifteen illegitimate children. From Louise de Kéroualle, the French aristocrat—and spy for Louis XIV—to the sexually ambiguous Hortense Mancini. Here, too, is the forlorn and humiliated Queen Catherine, the Portuguese princess who was Charles's childless queen.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eDrawing on a wide variety of original sources, including material in private archives, Linda Porter paints a vivid picture of these women and of Restoration England, an era that was both glamorous and sordid.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Macmillan Publishers New Zealand Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48243151175916,"sku":"9781509877072","price":24.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781509877072-mistresses-1.jpg?v=1787981270"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.live\/collections\/linda-porter.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}