Portrait of an Unknown Woman

"The year is 1527. Hans Holbein makes his first visit to England under the patronage of Sir Thomas More. As a guest in the splendid More house in Chelsea, Holbein begins to paint their first family portrait. Little could he know that in a few short years, the family, Tudor society and England itself would have changed beyond recognition. The great household of the courtier and scholar, Sir Thomas More, was famous for it's liveliness and learning. More had taken under his patronage distinguished astronomers, artists, politicians and men of religion, as well as wards of court, proteges and many others. Two people visiting the great house find themselves irresistibly drawn to Meg Giggs, one of More's foster daughters. John Clement - dark, tall, elegant - an erstwhile tutor, now studying to be a doctor, is a man of compelling presence and mysterious background. The other man is Holbein himself - warm, ebullient, radical and foreign - sent by the great Erasmus to paint the More family portraits. Meg finds herself powerfully drawn to these two wildly contrasting men. She will love one, marry the other. The two Holbein family portraits frame this remarkable novel with it's background of love, family and religious and political turmoil in Tudor England." Taken from the back cover