Mother of Henry VIII, she was well aware of her place in history and what she needed to do to secure her family and this book explores her life in great detail. She was the key piece in strengthening Henry Tudor’s fairly weak claim to the throne after the Battle of Bosworth and bringing to an end decades of civil war in England.

Many people won’t know much about Elizabeth of York, and even I have not read about her as widely as I have Edward IV and Richard III, but she was a woman at the crux of one of the most turbulent and transformative periods of history. For me, however, it is their predecessors, the Plantagenets, with whom I have always been fascinated – I am an avid Ricardian – and I was excited to see how Alison Weir would deal with the life of Elizabeth of York, the last Plantagenet and the woman who united the houses of Lancaster and York to bring the Wars of the Roses to an end. Alison Weir has written some of the most detailed and fascinating books, both fictional and non-fiction, on this period and it a well known authority on the subject. It is peopled by some of the most fascinating characters that ever lived – Henry VIII, Elizabeth I – and was a time of massive and lasting political change in England. Many people will tell you that their favourite period of history is the Tudor period, and it is easy to understand why.

Alison weir the last white rose