Publisher's Synopsis
Marie, the half-sister of King Henry II, grows up in the glittering courts of Eleanor of Aquitaine, where she becomes a great poet. As Marie de France she is known as "The Mother of French Literature". Her anonymous and popular courtly love stories are disapproved of by the Church, so she is sent from France, by royal command, to live quietly as the Abbess of Shaftesbury. Can she keep secret her authorship of these tales which celebrate adultery and unsanctioned love, or will it be revealed?
This research-based fictional memoir gives voice to a woman of whose personal life we know little but whose influence, both as poet and abbess, is truly significant.
