Overview

Scotland, 1561, and a ship comes across the North Sea carrying home Mary, the young, charismatic Queen of Scots, returning after 13 years in the French court to wrest back control of her throne.The Blackadder family has long awaited for the Queen’s return to bring them justice. Alison Blackadder, disguised as a boy from childhood to protect her from the murderous clan that stole their lands, must learn to be a lady-in-waiting to the Queen, building a web of dependence and reward.Just as the Queen can trust nobody, Alison discovers lies, danger and treachery at every turn.This sweeping, imaginative and original tale of political intrigue, misplaced loyalty, secret passion, and implacable revenge is based on real characters and events from the reign of Mary Queen of Scots. About the author Yes, Jesse Blackadder really was born with that surname. An award-winning novelist, freelance writer and budding screenwriter, she is fascinated by landscapes, adventurous women and really cold places. Jesse's forthcoming novel 'In the Blink of an Eye' is being published by St Martins Press in March 2019. (It was published in Australia as 'Sixty Seconds' by HarperCollins in 2017). The novel was inspired by her childhood experience of her sister's death in a swimming pool. Jesse has recently been jointly awarded the 2018 Australian Antarctic Arts Fellowship to write a television series and a junior novel series set in Antarctica, in partnership with screenwriter Jane Allen. The pair will live at Mawson Station over the 2018/19 summer. 'Chasing the Light' (2013), is historical fiction based on the true but forgotten story of the first women to reach Antarctica. Jesse won her first Australian Antarctic Arts Fellowship in 2011 and travelled to Antarctica to research the novel. Jesse's novel, The Raven's Heart, came about when she'd finally had enough of people asking if she was related to Rowan Atkinson. She travelled to Scotland to find the origins of the Blackadder surname and discovered the ruins of Blackadder House on the banks of the Blackadder River. Her first novel, After the Party (Hardie Grant Books 2005), made the Australian Book Review list of all time favourite Australian novels in 2010. Jesse has been a writer in residence in Sitka Alaska, in the Australian outback and at Byron Bay, and has been a fellow three times at Varuna The Writers' House, Australia's leading residential program for writers. She has a Doctor of Creative Arts from the University of Western Sydney. Born in Sydney, she now lives near Byron Bay on Australia's east coast. For more about Jesse please see her website