From prizewinning biographer Carolly Erickson, the harrowing story of a celebrated convict's 4,000--mile escape from prison by sea with her two small children In 1788, the British government commuted nineteen--year--old Mary Bryant's death sentence and transported her to Botany Bay, the penal colony in Australia. Her crime: stealing a lady's bonnet. In Australia, Mary married another convict and had two children, but harsh conditions made life increasingly unbearable. In 1791, she, her family, and seven other convicts escaped in a small open boat and sailed an astonishing 4,000 miles to the Dutch colony at Timor. The convicts initially passed as survivors of a shipwreck, but they were soon exposed, rounded up, and put on a ship back to England. Mary's two children died of fever on the voyage, and it seemed likely that she would face transportation back to Australia. But in England, her amazing escape and tragic story quickly became a cause celebre, and Mary was ultimately pardoned. Now, in this gripping narrative history, Carolly Erickson brings this remarkable woman to life, offering an indelible account of crime, punishment, heroism, and redemption. Carolly Erickson (Kailua, HI) is a distinguished historian who has written biographies of Empress Josephine, Tsarina Alexandra, and Queens Elizabeth I, Victoria, and Elizabeth II.

From the bestselling author of "The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette" comes a dramatic novel and powerful love story about the last Russian imperial family.

It is 1989 and Daria Gradov is an elderly grandmother living in the rural West. What neighbors and even her children don't know, however, is that she is not who she claims to be--the widow of a Russian immigrant of modest means. In actuality she began her life as the Grand Duchess Tatiana, known as Tania to her parents, Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra.

And so begins the latest entrancing historical entertainment by Carolly Erickson. At its center is young Tania, who lives a life of incomparable luxury in pre-Revolutionary Russia, from the magnificence of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg to the family's private enclave outside the capital. Tania is one of four daughters, and the birth of her younger brother Alexei is both a blessing and a curse. When he is diagnosed with hemophilia and the key to his survival lies in the mysterious power of the illiterate monk Rasputin, it is merely an omen of much worse things to come. Soon war breaks out and revolution sweeps the family from power and into claustrophobic imprisonment in Siberia. Into Tania's world comes a young soldier whose life she helps to save and who becomes her partner in daring plans to rescue the imperial family from certain death.

From the" New York Times" bestselling author of "The Last Wife of Henry VIII" comes a powerful and moving novel about Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII's first wife and mother of Mary I

When young Catherine of Aragon, proud daughter of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, is sent to England to marry the weak Prince Arthur, she is unprepared for all that awaits her: early widowhood, the challenge of warfare with the invading Scots, and the ultimately futile attempt to provide the realm with a prince to secure the succession. She marries Arthur's energetic, athletic brother Henry, only to encounter fresh obstacles, chief among them Henry's infatuation with the alluring but wayward Anne Boleyn.
In The Spanish Queen, bestselling novelist Carolly Erickson allows the strong-willed, redoubtable Queen Catherine to tell her own story--a tale that carries her from the scented gardens of Grenada to the craggy mountains of Wales to the conflict-ridden Tudor court. Surrounded by strong partisans among the English, and with the might of Spanish and imperial arms to defend her, Catherine soldiers on, until her union with King Henry is severed and she finds herself discarded--and tempted to take the most daring step of her life.
Carolly Erickson's historical entertainments continue to succeed in creating a unique blend of historical authenticity and page-turning drama.

From the "New York Times" bestselling author of "The Last Wife of Henry VIII" comes a novel about the bitter rivalry between Queen Elizabeth I and her fascinating cousin, Lettice Knollys, for the love of one extraordinary man.

Powerful and dramatic, this is the story of the only woman to ever stand up to the Virgin Queen--her own cousin, Lettice Knollys. Far more attractive than the queen, Lettice soon won the attention of the handsome and ambitious Robert Dudley, a man so enamored of the queen and determined to share her throne that it was rumored he had murdered his own wife in order to become her royal consort. The enigmatic Elizabeth allowed Dudley into her heart, and relied on his devoted service, but shied away from the personal and political risks of marriage.

When Elizabeth discovered that he had married her cousin Lettice in secret, Lettice would pay a terrible price, fighting to keep her husband's love and ultimately losing her beloved son to the queen's headsman. This is the unforgettable story of two women related by blood, yet destined to clash over one of Tudor England's most charismatic men.

The fascinating personalities of Regency England provide the dramatic intrigue of this excellent social history that looks at the dynamic forces of English society in flux. From the acclaimed author of Bloody Mary and Mistress Anne.

The bestselling author of "The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette "and "The Last Wife of Henry VIII "returns with an enchanting novel about the ambitious, amoral, vulnerable woman who became the first wife of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Fashion icon, leader of France's society in the turbulent years of the guillotine and the bloody Napoleonic Wars, the alluring Josephine was a tough survivor--yet she also had a gentle, haunting quality that made her irresistible to her contemporaries, especially to the mysterious, compelling stranger from Martinique who captured her heart.

From the bestselling and critically acclaimed author of "The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette "comes a powerful new novel about Catherine Parr, "The Last Wife of Henry VIII."

The least known of Henry VIII's six wives was the cleverest of them all. Alluring, witty, and resourceful, she attracted the king's lust and, though much in love with the handsome Thomas Seymour, was thrown into the intrigue-filled snakepit of the royal court. While victims of the king's wrath suffered torture and execution, Catherine withstood the onslaught, even when Henry sought to replace her with wife number seven. She survived her royal husband, and found happiness with Seymour---but it was shadowed by rivalry with the young Princess Elizabeth, whose affection Seymour coveted. Catherine won the contest, but at great cost.

From medieval conqueror to Renaissance autocrat to Victorian Empress to modern melodrama, "Royal Panoply" is the story of some of the most fascinating people in world history.

With her trademark blend of probing scholarship, lively prose, and psychological insight, Carolly Erickson focuses on each monarch's entire life---from the puny, socially awkward Charles I, to the choleric, violent William the Conqueror, to the well-meaning, deeply affectionate Queen Anne, who was so heavy she had to be carried to her coronation. "Royal Panoply" recaptures the event-filled, often dangerous, always engaging lives of England's kings and queens, set against the backdrop of a thousand years of Britain's past.

Imagine that, on the night before she is to die under the blade of the guillotine, Marie Antoinette leaves behind in her prison cell a diary telling the story of her life - from her privileged childhood as Austrian Archduchess to her years as glamorous mistress of Versailles to the heartbreak of imprisonment and humiliation during the French Revolution. Carolly Erickson takes the reader deep into the psyche of France's doomed queen: her love affair with handsome Swedish diplomat Count Axel Fersen, who risked his life to save her; her fears on the terrifying night the Parisian mob broke into her palace bedroom intent on murdering her and her family; her harrowing attempted flight from France in disguise; her recapture and the grim months of harsh captivity; and her agony when her beloved husband was guillotined and her young son was torn from her arms, never to be seen again. Erickson brilliantly captures the queen's voice, her hopes, her dreads, and her suffering. We follow, mesmerized, as she reveals every detail of her remarkable, eventful life - from her teenage years when she began keeping a diary to her final days when she awaited her own bloody appointment with the guillotine.

From her overprotected girlhood to her ascension to the throne at twenty-five, to her personal and national difficulties as queen, Elizabeth II has presided over her people for half a century. Acclaimed historian Erickson tells the queen's story from her point of view, letting the reader re-live Elizabeth's long and eventful life. Lilibet shows us an Elizabeth we thought we knew - but in a different light. We glimpse, as never before, the strong and appealing sovereign who has reigned over the decline of Great Britain and the fall in prestige of her own Windsor dynasty.

One of America's foremost writers of literary nonfiction brings us one of history's most misunderstood figures, Marie Antoinette. "An extraordinary life . . . Ms. Erickson gives us a likable, empathetic woman and broadens our understanding of her".--The New York Times Book Review.

Tsarina Alexandra-hauntingly beautiful, melancholy, obsessed with the occult-was blamed by her contemporaries for the downfall of the Romanovs. But her true nature has eluded previous biographers. Using archival material unavailable before the fall of the Soviet Union, acclaimed historian Carolly Erickson's masterful study brings to life the full dimensions of the Empress's singular psychology: her childhood bereavement, her long struggle to marry Nicholas, the anguish of her pathological shyness, and her increasing dependence on a series of occult mentors, the most notorious of whom was Rasputin. With meticulous care, Erickson has crafted an intimate and richly detailed portrait of an enigmatic historical figure. Unfolding against the turbulent backdrop of Russian history in the last decades before the Revolution of 1917, this engrossing biography draws the reader in to Alexandra's isolated, increasingly troubled interior world. In these pages, the tsarina ceases to be a remote historical figure and becomes a character who lives and breathes.

Intimate, rich in detail, carefully researched and informed by a generous imagination, Erickson's page-turning account of Alexandra and her times is a gem of biographical storytelling, as vivid and hard to put down as an enthralling novel.

In 1804, when Josephine Bonaparte knelt before her husband, Napoleon, to receive the imperial diadem, few in the vast crowd of onlookers were aware of the dark secrets hidden behind the imperial façade. To her subjects, she appeared to vet hew most favored woman in France: alluring, wealthy, and with the devoted love of a remarkable husband who was the conqueror of Europe. In actuality, Josephine's life was far darker, for her celebrated allure was fading, her wealth was compromised by massive debt, and her marriage was corroded by infidelity and abuse.

Josephine's life story was as turbulent as the age—an era of revolution and social upheaval, of the guillotine, and of frenzied hedonism. With telling psychological depth and compelling literary grace, Carolly Erickson brings the complex, charming, ever-resilient Josephine to life in this memorable portrait, one that carries the reader along every twist and turn of the empress's often thorny path, from the sensual richness of her childhood in the tropics to her final lonely days at Malmaison.

Here is the tragic, stormy life of Mary Tudor, daughter of Henry VII and Katherine of Aragon. Her story is a chronicle of courage and faith, betrayal and treachery—set amidst the splendor, pageantry, squalor, and intrigue of sixteenth-century Europe.

The history of Mary Tudor is an improbable blend of triumph, humiliation, heartbreak, and devotion—and Ms. Erickson recounts it all against the turbulent background of European politics, war, and religious strife of the mid-1500s. The result is a rare portrait of the times and of a woman elevated to unprecedented power in a world ruled and defined by men.

As Maureen Quilligan wrote in The New York Times Book Review of The First Elizabeth, Anne Boleyn "was a real victim of the sexual scandals her brilliant daughter escaped, and a subject Ms. Erickson's sensitivity to sexual and political nuance should well serve." Indeed, Carolly Erickson could have chosen no more fascinating and appropriate the grasp of historians for centuries.

Through her extraordinarily vivid re-creation of this most tragic chapter in all Tudor history, Carolly Erickson gives us unprecedented insight into the singularity of Anne Boleyn's life, the dark, and overwhelming forces that shaped her errant destiny, and the rare, tumultuous times in which she lived.

More and more, we are coming to realize that, along with our bodies, we have souls -- eternal, immaterial essences that accompany us throughout life. From birth to death, while our bodies drive themselves, our minds learn and plan, and our hearts experience love, joy, pain and loss, our souls are alive too, and at work -- though the nature and scope of that work may not always be apparent. Like the flight of a divinely guided arrow, each of our lives follows its own arc, and it is up to each of to discern its path. With thought-provoking paradigms as well as exercises and questions to lead us, Erickson offers seekers at all levels a guide to uncovering our own unique paths.
Employing the methods that have proven so successful in her seminars on writing spiritual autobiographies, Carolly Erickson shows us how to take a spiritual inventory and how to recognize the often elusive tracks of the spirit as it works within us.
Whether we are on a new spiritual quest or looking to deepen our faith, we will all be the richer for "Arc of the Arrow, " a catalyst for self-knowledge and for a heightened awareness of the divine within, and a practical guide to mapping the course of our spiritual lives.

In this remarkable biography, Carolly Erickson brings Elizabeth I to life and allows us to see her as a living, breathing, elegant, flirtatious, diplomatic, violent, arrogant, and outrageous woman who commands our attention, fascination, and awe.

With the special skill for which she is acclaimed, Carolly Erickson electrifies the senses as she evokes with total fidelity the brilliant colors of Elizabethan clothing and jewelry, the texture of tapestries, and even the close, perfumed air of castle rooms, Erickson demonstrates her extraordinary ability to discern and bring to life psychological and physical reality.

This exceptionally readable book describes how medieval men and women perceived their world, and how their vision of it colored their ideas about natural and supernatural occurrences and their attitudes about land and property, government, the role of women, crime, lawlessness, and outlaws.

Born into an ambitious noble family, young Jane Seymour is sent to Court as a Maid of Honour to Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII's aging queen. She is devoted to her mistress and watches with empathy as the calculating Anne Boleyn contrives to supplant her as queen. Once Anne becomes queen, no one at court is safe, and Jane herself becomes the victim of Anne's venomous rage when she suspects Jane has become the object of the king's lust. Henry, fearing that Anne's inability to give him a son is a sign of divine wrath, asks Jane to become his next queen. Deeply reluctant to embark on such a dangerous course, Jane must choose between her heart and her loyalty to the king.