Vanora Bennett Libros

Set in late fourteenth century England, Vanora Bennett's rich, dramatic new novel presents an England uncannily like our own. The country is in turmoil, The King is in debt to the City, and the old order had broken down - a time of opportunity indeed, for those who can seize the moment. The king's mistress, Alice Perrers, becomes the virtual ruler of the country from his sickbed. Disliked and despised by the Black Prince and his cronies, her strong connections to the merchants make her a natural ally for the king's ambitious second son, John of Gaunt.Together they create a powerful position in the city for one of his henchmen, Geoffrey Chaucer. In this moment of opportunity, Alice throws herself into her new role and the riches that lay before her, but Chaucer, even though her lover and friend, is uneasy over what he can foresee of the conspiracies around them. At the centre of these troubled times and political unrest stands the remarkable figure of a woman who, having escaped the plague which killed her whole family, is certain she is untouchable, and a man who learns that cleverness and ambition may for him sit too uneasily with decency and honesty.

The Taste of Dreams is both a quest for the romantic Russia of the author’s dreams, and a tale of amazement as she discovers and gets caught up in the new, anarchic Russia emerging from its Soviet constraints. At its heart is the story of caviar—beluga, the rarest type of sturgeon, harvested from the Caspian Sea. It is now an endangered species, and no one knows how to—or wants to—stop the plunder. Intelligent, funny, and enormously engaging, this is a modern tour through the intricacies of the new Russia. Vanora Bennett writes for The Times of London and is a former Moscow correspondent for Reuters and the Los Angeles Times. She is the author of Crying Wolf: The Return of War to Chechnya.

A sumptuous wedding feast, two advantageous marriages and a blessing from the golden king

The year is 1527. Hans Holbein is at the beginning of his career when he travels to England under the patronage of Sir Thomas More. As a guest in the splendid More household, he begins to paint their family portrait. The Holbein family portraits frame this story with its background of love, family, and political turmoil.

"St. Petersburg, 1911: Inna Feldman has fled the pogroms of the south to take refuge with distant relatives in Russia's capital city. Welcomed by the flamboyant Leman family, she is apprenticed into their violin-making workshop. She feels instantly at home in their bohemian circle, but revolution is in the air, and as society begins to fracture, she is forced to choose between her heart and her head. She loves her brooding cousin, Yasha, but he is wild, destructive and devoted to revolution; Horace Wallick, an Englishman who makes precious Faberge creations, is older and promises security and respectability. And, like many others, she is drawn to the mysterious, charismatic figure beginning to make a name for himself in the city: Rasputin. As the rebellion descends into anarchy and bloodshed, a commission to repair a priceless Stradivarius violin offers Inna a means of escape. But which man will she choose to take with her? And is it already too late? A magical and passionate story steeped in history and intrigue, Vanora Bennett's Midnight in St. Petersburg is an extraordinary novel of music, politics, and the toll that revolution exacts on the human heart"--

The story of a great queen, a woman of enormous courage who made her own rules, and a true survivor. This is the first in a series of late medieval novels by Vanora Bennett, the author of Portrait of an Unknown Woman. 1420, and a young princess is offered in marriage to her country's enemy, her nation's conqueror. She is Catherine of Valois, he is Henry V. She is a princess of the French blood royal, he is the son of the usurper of the English throne. Fresh from battle he claims his bride and the right to the throne of France. Now Catherine must live as queen to a man more comfortable with war than anything else and as the wife of a man determined to destroy her people. Alone and friendless, she finds the only man who can understand what she feels: a young Welshman, Owain Tudor, who is as much adrift among the English as she is. It's a matching of souls but this friendship will turn out to be as dangerous as it is irresistible…