Men did as they pleased, and women suffered for it. There was only one way to beat them, and that was to match your wits against theirs and come out the winner.
Raised in the squalid backstreets of Regency London, Mary Anne Clarke develops a sharp wit and a ruthless ambition. With her manners polished by a few years of education, and her heart hardened by a disastrous early marriage, she is determined to use all her charms to climb the social ladder – and soon catches the eye of the Duke of York. But Mary Anne aims higher than the role of a royal mistress. As her taste for luxury and power grows, the scandal she provokes will rock the government, scandalise a nation, and threaten to destroy everything she holds dear.
As vivid and seductive as its unforgettable heroine, Mary Anne is a glittering reimagining of the life of du Maurier’s own great-great-grandmother.
