Notes

“Through my roof hole I am watching the final touches being put to the scaffold on Tower Green. It is draped in black, and straw has already been strewn around the block to catch the blood. There is no axe yet. The executioner will bring that. I wonder if Mother will let us watch?”

It is February, 1554. Tilly Middleton lives in the greatest castle in England – the Tower of London. It is a palace and a fortress, but also a prison. Tomorrow a lady will be executed there: Lady Jane Grey, Queen for just nine days, sentenced to a traitor’s death at the age of sixteen. Many say she does not deserve to die, but the Bloody Tower will have no mercy on her… Set in a Britain gripped by religious violence, treason and unrest, this story-diary vividly brings to life the turbulent times of the 1550s, when Queen Mary ousted Lady Jane Grey to win the English throne.