The French Lesson

For fans of TV dramas like 'Victoria', 'Downton Abbey' and 'Poldark' 'A riveting novel of female intrigue, betrayal and revenge in the French Revolution. Read it!' LUCY WORSLEY PARIS, 1792 It was a head, but one so bloodied, so rolled in filth, that it was scarcely recognisable but for its long red curls. It had been stuck on a pike like a lump of bread upon a toasting fork ... Henrietta Lightfoot trips on her silk gown as she runs for her life along the bloodstained streets of revolutionary Paris. She finds refuge in the lavish home of Grace Dalyrmple Elliott, one of the old regime's most powerful courtesans. But heads are beginning to roll. Outside, the guillotine mercilessly claims its victims, while inside society's gilded salons, Henrietta becomes a pawn in a vicious power game. How will she survive in a world where no one can be trusted? 'A gleefully modern retelling of a juicy chapter in history' The Times 'Rubenhold unfolds a complicated plot with great dexterity' Sunday Times 'Compelling, operatic, modern' SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE 'Dark and delicious' Red Magazine