Life is full of lists - - To Do Lists, Will Do lists, Should Do Lists. The list of lists goes on and on but they all have one thing in common. They're all lists of things we don't really want to do. So why not make a list of things you actually do want to do? Nothing big, nothing too complicated, just simple things that could possibly make a big difference. The 52 List can help you make the most of the little things in life. Why? Because in years to come you'll look back and realise that the things you thought were small and insignificant were, in reality, what made your life richer, happier and lots more fun.

Alice Spencer of Althorp Manor believes that all her dreams have come true when she meets Ferdinando Stanley, heir to the great earldom of Derby. But she soon realises that his royal blood is a dangerous inheritance in Elizabethan England, especially when set within the context of Catholic conspiracy in their vast estates in Lancashire. Their prominence at the Court and their patronage of actors and writers, including the young William Shakespeare, is threatened by Catholic intrigue and their world becomes a menacing place of plotters and spies bringing unforeseen consequences.

Aemilia Bassano, daughter of an Italian musician at the Elizabethan Court, has ambitions to gain a place in aristocratic society and also to enter the artisticworld of poetry and music exclusive to men. Her love for the theatre brings her into contact with William Shakespeare, and her entanglement with the actor/playwright, his rich libertine patron the Earl of Southampton, the magician Simon Forman, the charismatic Earl of Essex and the musician Alfonso Lanier, results in intrigue, jealous rivalries, deceit and betrayal, culminating in the publication of an unconventional book of poems.