Graces

In 1673, fifteen-year-old Maria d'Este travels from Northern Italy to marry James, Duke of York, the future King of England and a man 25 years her senior. Thrust from a pious life on the path to be a nun, in England she set about recreating the world she'd left behind - one where women were highly educated, exercised power and, in particular, celebrated art and artists with concentrated patronage.

The Graces is a spellbinding narrative drawing from newly discovered letters to and from Maria, later known as Mary of Modena, that examine her life and the lives of her maids of honour; three talented, lively and intelligent young women in the Jacobite court. Mary's graces were Anne Killigrew, prodigiously talented painter and poet, Anne Finch, revered poet, and Sarah Jennings, later Sarah Churchill, keen politician and ?favourite' of Queen Anne. These women were keenly aware of the forces of misogyny and patriarchy working against them, but defied the conventions of their time thanks to Mary's relentless support.

Mary's extraordinary intellect, activism and patronage have all but been forgotten due to vicious court rumours perpetuated by history - but here, cultural historian Breeze Barrington restores Mary's legacy and the legacy of the women she championed. The Graces is an alluring insight into the lives of four extraordinary women whose accomplishments have been lost to history.