Historical Fiction Spotlight: Firebrand: Previously published as Queen’s Gambit, now a feature film starring Alicia Vikander

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

Now a major motion picture, Firebrand shows the tumultuous darker side to the marriages of the notorious King of England, Henry VIII, and the wife who survived.

My name is Katherine Parr.

I’m thirty-one years old – already twice widowed.

I love a man I can’t have.

I’m to wed a man no one would want.

He has cast aside two wives and watched another die in childbirth.

Two more have had their heads struck from their bodies, on his order.

What will become of me as Henry VIII’s sixth wife?

I will have the king’s ear. With that comes power.

But power means danger in the Tudor court.

Many have fallen.

Will I fall too?

Widowed for the second time at age thirty-one, Katherine Parr falls deeply for the dashing courtier Thomas Seymour and hopes at last to marry for love. Instead, she attracts the amorous attentions of the ailing, egotistical, and dangerously powerful Henry VIII. 

No one is able to refuse a royal proposal. Haunted by the fates of his previous wives—two executions, two annulments, one death in childbirth—Katherine must wed Henry and rely on her wits and the help of her loyal servant Dot to survive the treacherous pitfalls of life as Henry’s queen. Yet as she treads the razor’s edge of court intrigue, she never quite gives up on love.

Dive into Elizabeth Fremantle's vivid Tudor England and meet the woman who survived Henry VIII.

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About the Author

Elizabeth Freemantle lives in London and is the author of seven historical novels. Her first, QUEEN'S GAMBIT is about the last wife of Henry VIII and has been adapted into the feature film FIREBRAND starring Alicia Vikander and Jude Law which premiered to great acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival 2023. Publishing July 27th (UK) & August 1st (US) is Elizabeth's most recent novel DISOBEDIENT recounting a year (1611) in the life of the young Roman painter Artemisia Gentileschi and the terrifying obstacles she was forced to overcome in order to become the foremost female painter of the Renaissance. The brilliant Emma D'Arcy of House of the Dragon has recorded the audiobook. Following on from QUEEN'S GAMBIT are three further Tudor set novels that follow on from each other: SISTERS OF TREASON, WATCH THE LADY and THE GIRL IN THE GLASS TOWER, all focusing on noted women whose lives were shaped and endangered by their proximity to the Tudor throne. Find out more from her website http://www.elizabethfremantle.com/ and find her on Instagram and Twitter @LizFremantle