Showing titles in Renaissance

Florence. Autumn, 1539. Cesare Aldo was once an officer for the city’s most feared criminal court. Following a period of exile, he is back but demoted to night patrol when only the drunk and the dangerous roam the streets. Chasing a suspect in the rain, Aldo discovers a horrifying scene beneath Michelangelo’s statue of David. Lifeless eyes gaze from the face of a man whose body has been posed as if crucified. It’s clear the killer had religious motives. When more bodies appear, Aldo believes an unholy murderer is stalking the citizens of Florence.

Erzsébet Báthory, whose infamous place in history characterises her as the 'Blood Countess', is rumoured to have murdered 600 peasant girls. The Nightingale's Castle tells the gripping story of an intelligent and capable woman fighting to hold onto her wealth and independence, in a world where the poor and the wealthy alike face savage challenges.

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.

Frances Howard has beauty and a powerful family - and is the most unhappy creature in the world. Anne Turner has wit and talent - but no stage on which to display them. Little stands between her and the abyss of destitution. When these two very different women meet in the strangest of circumstances, a powerful friendship is sparked.

Cesare Aldo, a former soldier and now an officer of the Renaissance city's most feared criminal court, is given four days to solve the murder: catch the killer before the feast of Epiphany—or suffer the consequences. During his investigations Aldo uncovers a plot to overthrow the volatile ruler of Florence, Alessandro de' Medici. If the duke falls, it will endanger the whole city. But a rival officer of the court is determined to expose details about Aldo’s private life that could lead to his ruin.

Palermo 1632: Giulia is thirteen years old when she learns her mother Teofania's greatest secret. Her mother knows how to brew an undetectable lethal poison, which she uses to free the broken and abused women of Palermo. Now Teofania wants to pass her recipe on to her daughter, and Giulia soon learns that, in a time when women have no voice, justice is sometimes best served in a cup of wine. Rome, 1659: Years later, Giulia ends up alone and poor in Rome. Within the alleys and shadows of the Eternal City, she forms her own circle of female poisoners.

Written in the winter of 1849, The Scarlet Letter unfolds the story of Hester Prynne, a young woman branded as an adulteress in the harsh Puritan world of 17th-century New England. As Hester calls on her inner strength to transcend her shame, the scarlet letter ceases to be a stigma and finally becomes Hester's symbol of self-affirmation. This dramatic reading heightens the sense of lyric poetry that permeates every line of Nathaniel Hawthorne's great novel.

1560: Amy Robsart is trapped in a loveless marriage to Robert Dudley, a member of the court of Queen Elizabeth I. Surrounded by enemies and with nowhere left to turn, Amy hatches a desperate scheme to escape – one with devastating consequences that will echo through the centuries. Present Day: When Lizzie Kingdom is forced to withdraw from the public eye in a blaze of scandal, it seems her life is over. But she’s about to encounter a young man, Johnny Robsart, whose fate will interlace with hers in the most unexpected of ways.

Present day: When thirty-six-year-old Robyn Willoughby discovers an exquisite yet blood-stained Tudor map in her father’s antique map shop, desperate for a distraction from her problems, she decides to investigate. But as Robyn delves into the mystery, she finds herself caught up in a centuries-old secret—one that will change her life forever.

Tom Swan - soldier, scholar, bastard, spy. Tom Swan and his friends are trying to save Europe from the Turks, but most of his adversaries seem to be other Europeans. This time, an unnamed cabal is trying to kill him and, incidentally, ruin the banks and trade of England, France and Italy. Join Tom Swan on his latest adventure as the likes of Cosimo di Medici, Warwick the Kingmaker, Bessarion the cardinal and Aneas Picclomini the Pope show Tom the Renaissance in all its deadly glory!

Sister. Pawn. Liar. Traitor. Her words sent two queens to the scaffold. Her secrets shaped a kingdom. But her true story was hidden. Until now. Philippa Gregory brings the Boleyn traitor out of the shadows in a groundbreaking tale of love, betrayal — and survival.

Though Eleanor is not wealthy, the saffron spice she grows for her new husband is more valuable than gold. But as his reputation in Henry’s court soars, Eleanor soon understands that she has entered into a dangerous game. The king’s affections do not last forever, and she must do anything to protect her family.

England. 1535. Jane Seymour is 27 years old and increasingly desperate to marry and secure her place in the world. When the court visits Wolf Hall, the Seymour ancestral manor, Jane has the perfect opportunity to shine: her diligence, efficiency, and newfound poise are sure to finally attract a suitor. Meanwhile, King Henry VIII is 45 and increasingly desperate for an heir. He changed his country's religion to leave his first wife, a princess of Spain, for Anne Boleyn—but she, too, has failed to provide a son.

Ann Stilwell arrives in New York City, hoping to spend her summer working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Instead, she is assigned to The Cloisters, a gothic museum and garden renowned for its collection of medieval and Renaissance art. There she is drawn into a small circle of charismatic but enigmatic researchers, each with their own secrets and desires, including the museum's curator, Patrick Roland, who is convinced that the history of Tarot holds the key to unlocking contemporary fortune telling.

There's only one thing notorious thief Lyta loves more than a big score: her little brother, Kit. But when Kit is arrested for producing seditious pamphlets, he stands to lose not only his printing press, but possibly his life. In exchange for her brother's freedom, Lyta strikes a daring bargain with the king -she will steal the infamous Book of Gold: a mysterious manuscript reputed to be hiding vast magical power within.

October 1604. Plague has hit London, and the theatres are closed. But the capital's loss is Plymouth's gain, when a London theatre troupe, the Company, arrive on their 'Plague Tour'. Country physician Gabriel Taverner is bewitched and unnerved by the Company's sexually charged staging of Othello. But when Gabriel's friend tells him of a dangerous whispered conversation overheard during a brief break, he is relieved the Company will soon be on their way. Then one of the actors collapses, and Gabriel finds himself caught in a waking nightmare, where nothing is as it appears.

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of M.M. Kaye’s epic novel of love and war. M.M. Kaye’s masterwork is a vast, rich and vibrant tapestry of love and war that spans over twenty years, moving from the foothills of the Himalayas, to the burning plains, to the besieged British Mission in Kabul. It begins in 1857 when, following the Indian Mutiny, young English orphan Ashton is disguised by his ayah Sita as her Indian son, Ashok. As he forgets his true identity, his destiny is set...

For Shai, lost and drifting, a visit to her hometown in India’s Northeast offers the possibility of new ways of living. For Evelyn, a Cambridge student, scientific inspiration guides her to the forests of the lower Himalayas and a world she has only read about. For Johann, a German writer, travelling through Italy inspires him to develop groundbreaking ideas that will cement his place in history. And for a young Swede, an unwavering curiosity for earth’s natural wonders takes him on an expedition that will forever alter the way we understand the world around us.

JAPON. 1600. John Blackthorne rêvait d’y accoster. Il n’imaginait pas que, pour y parvenir, il aurait à braver une tempête. Craché par l’océan, l’équipage du pilote anglais touche enfin terre. Mais les marins regrettent bien vite leur découverte, car ils sont maintenant prisonniers de samouraïs aux mœurs très différentes des leurs. Amené devant Toranaga et Ishido, deux daimyō rivaux dont l’ambition secrète est de devenir Shōgun, Blackthorne fera tout pour recouvrer sa liberté. Mais il faudra bien des sacrifices pour survivre sur cette "Terre des Larmes", où la mort est une fatalité.

Welcome to Florence, 1517. Sharp-witted seventeen-year-old con-woman Rosa Cellini has plans for the Pope and the Medicis - and, more specifically, the mountain of indulgence money they've been extorting from the people of Tuscany. To pull off the Renaissance's greatest robbery, she'll recruit a team of capable misfits: Sarra the tinkerer, Khalid the fighter, and Giacomo, the irrepressible master of disguise. To top it all off, and to smooth their entrance into the fortress-like Palazzo Medici, Rosa even enlists the reluctant help of famed artist and local misanthrope, Michelangelo.