The Tutor

Elizabethan England: a country in the grip of religious turmoil and a dangerous place to be Catholic.

Hidden in a hedgerow on the Lufanwal estate is a Catholic priest, bloody and beaten to death. The body is found by Katharine, a young widow staying with relatives at Lufanwal, and life on the estate begins to unravel. The head of the family flees England and, in his absence, resentment and ambition thrive. Into the midst of this upheaval comes a young tutor, quick-witted, unorthodox, maddening and strangely irresistible: Will Shakespeare.

Katherine is drawn helplessly into Will's heady world of poetry and imagination, the intensity of her love distracting her from disasters looming all around. But the malicious forces working within her family cannot be ignored for long. Conspiracies threaten to overwhelm the natural order and charming Will Shakespeare is not what he seems . . .

This is a vivid tale of desire and deception, loyalty and betrayal, and the seductive power of language.