‘Richly detailed and often thought-provoking… This is an enthralling book.’

Dervla Murphy, The Irish Times

‘A truly marvellous story—one in which truth is more brave and more resourceful than fiction.’

Irish Post

Set in a period of invasion and social and political chaos perpetrated by the Tudor conquest of Ireland, the story of Eleanor, Countess of Desmond recounts the heroic efforts of a woman to protect her family against insurmountable odds. Aristocratic, educated, intelligent and able, Lady Eleanor Butler’s destiny was as a wife and mother. But marriage to Garrett FitzGerald, the powerful Earl of Desmond, hurled her headlong into a maelstrom of rebellion and intrigue as she become embroiled in a struggle to the death against the formidable, Machiavellian government of Queen Elizabeth I of England.

Enduring imprisonment, exile and poverty, her mission to save her family from annihilation becomes Eleanor’s obsession, for which she will sacrifice anything, including herself. Anne Chambers vividly brings the life of this neglected heroine to light against the backdrop of one of the most convoluted and traumatic periods in Irish history.