Amenable Women

by Mavis Cheek (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2008

  $4.33

  Flora Chapman is in her fifties when her husband dies in a bizarre ballooning accident. Seizing upon her new found freedom, she decides to finish the history of their village that Edward had begun. A reference to Anne of Cleves, Henry VIII's fourth wife who he rejected for being ugly, captures her imagination as she begins to delve deeper into the life of this neglected figure. Meanwhile, in the Louvre, Holbein's portrait of Anne of Cleves senses the tug of a connection and she begins to tell the story of the injustices she suffered and just how she survived her marriage...

• Used

  Paperback
  2008

  $13.54

  Flora Chapman is in her fifties when her dashing and infuriating husband, Edward, dies in a bizarre ballooning accident. Ever pragmatic, Flora seizes upon her new freedom and decides to finish Edward's history of Hurcott Ducis, the village where they've spent their married life. A reference to Anna of Cleves, Henry VIII's fourth wife, unkindly called 'The Flanders Mare', captures Flora's attention and later her affection as she sets about her own research in the hope of elevating Anna's place in history. Meanwhile, in the Louvre, Holbein's portrait of Anna senses the tug of a connection and she begins to tell the real story of how she survived her disastrous Tudor marriage. This novel about two intelligent, accomplished women who lived in the shadow of the men they married, interweaves a fascinating and little-known part of history with a broader contemporary tale of love, marriage, self-preservation and motherhood with all their pains, pleasures and humour.