Wife, consort and protector of the ill-fated Earl of Desmond, virtual 'king' of one third of Ireland in the 16th century, the life of Eleanor, Countess of Desmond is a struggle against inexorable fate. Her life is one of Shakespearean tragic proportions.

She becomes caught in a whirlwind of unparalleled upheaval and destruction as the old world of Gaelic Ireland clashes headlong with the acquisitive military power of Elizabethan England and becomes entangled within the power-games of European kings.

A woman of courage and indomitable will, with an almost superhuman capacity to withstand suffering, loss and deprivation, Eleanor was relentless in pursuing her family's interests. Wife of the rebel 16th Earl of Desmond, she became to the armies of Elizabeth 1 of England, who pursued her among the mountains and valleys of Munster, an obsessive myth, 'the object of their, hatred and lust; the she-devil…What self-respecting woman - and a countess to boot - would willingly live like a wild animal in the woods and bogs?'

And while Eleanor's life seems doomed, her home destroyed, her vast Desmond inheritance confiscated, her children imprisoned, her husband beheaded, as she moves from riches to abject poverty and back again, her failure is heroic, her path towards it a triumph of the human spirit.
(The book was short-listed for the GPA Irish Book Awards)

REVIEWS

'This brilliant biography from Anne Chambers is alive with blazing reality as she sets her subject with an instinctive flair for accuracy. Not only a wonderful read but a superb history of the period.' The Irish Press

'Chambers writes with the assurance of someone who has saturated herself in the social and political atmosphere of Elizabethan Ireland…She skilfully brings all her main characters to life…The background to Eleanor's life is richly detailed and often through-provoking…This is an enthralling book.' The Irish Times

Buy Now from amazon

Published by Merlin Publishing,
16 Upper Pembroke
Street, Dublin 2, Ireland.
Tel: 353 1 6764373
Fax: 353 1 6764368
E-mail: publishing@merlin.ie
Web : www.merlin-publishing.com
and available from all good book stores at 10 euro