Rosalind Miles Books In Order

Return to Eden Books In Order

  1. Return to Eden (1984)
  2. Bitter Legacy (1986)

Guenevere Books In Order

  1. Queen of the Summer Country (1999)
  2. The Knight of the Sacred Lake (2000)
  3. The Child of the Holy Grail (2000)

Tristan and Isolde Books In Order

  1. Queen of the Western Isle (2001)
  2. The Maiden of White Hands (2003)
  3. Isolde, The Lady of the Sea (2002)

Novels

  1. Modest Proposals (1984)
  2. Prodigal Sins (1991)
  3. I, Elizabeth (1992)
  4. Act of Passion (1993)

Non fiction

  1. The Fiction of Sex (1974)
  2. Problem of Measure for Measure (1976)
  3. The Women’s History of the World (1981)
  4. Danger! Men at Work (1983)
  5. Women and Power (1985)
  6. Ben Jonson (1986)
  7. The Female Form (1987)
  8. Women’s History of the 20th Century (1989)
  9. The Rites of Man (1991)
  10. Love, Sex, Death, and the Making of the Male (1991)
  11. The Children We Deserve (1994)
  12. Who Cooked the Last Supper? (2001)
  13. Hell Hath No Fury (2008)
  14. Warrior Women (2011)
  15. Ben Jonson: His Craft and Art (2017)
  16. Ben Jonson: His Life and Work (2017)
  17. Rebel Women (2020)
  18. The Women’s History of the Modern World (2021)

Return to Eden Book Covers

Guenevere Book Covers

Tristan and Isolde Book Covers

Novels Book Covers

Non fiction Book Covers

Rosalind Miles Books Overview

Queen of the Summer Country

Camelot a vibrant pageant of love, heartbreak, hatred, jealousy, revenge, and desire as seen through the eyes of its queen, GuenevereRaised in the tranquil beauty of the Summer Country, Princess Guenevere has led a charmed and contented life, until the sudden, violent death of her mother, Queen Maire, leaves the Summer Country teetering on the brink of anarchy. Only the miraculous arrival of Arthur, heir to the Pendragon dynasty, allows Guenevere to claim her mother’s throne. Smitten by the bold, sensuous princess, Arthur offers to marry her and unite their territory while still allowing her to rule in her own right. Their love match creates the largest and most powerful kingdom in the Isles. Arthur’s glorious rule begins to crumble, however, when he is reunited with his mother and his long lost half sisters, Morgause and Morgan. Before Arthur’s birth, his father the savage and unscrupulous King Uther banished his wife’s young daughters, selling Morgause into a cruel marriage and imprisoning Morgan in a far off convent. Both daughters will avenge their suffering, but it is Morgan who strikes the deadliest blows against the King and Queen, using her evil enchantments to destroy all Guenevere holds dear. When the Queen flees to Avalon, Morgan casts a spell on Arthur and seduces him. In the chaos that follows his betrayal, Arthur sends a new courtier to protect Guenevere, the young French knight Lancelot. Her loyalty to Arthur already destroyed, Guenevere falls in love with Lancelot, a love that may spell ruin for Camelot.

The Knight of the Sacred Lake

Last in a line of proud queens elected to rule the fertile lands of the West, true owner of the legendary Round Table, guardian of the Great Goddess herself…
a woman whose story has never been told until now. As High King and Queen, Arthur and Guenevere reign supreme across the many kingdoms of Great Britain. Still, Guenevere secretly mourns the loss of her beloved Lancelot, who has returned to the Sacred Lake of his boyhood, hoping to restore his faith in chivalry in the place where he learned to be a knight. In a glittering Pentecost ceremony, new knights are sworn to the Round Table, including Arthur’s nephews, Agravain and Gawain. After many years of strife, peace is restored to Guenevere’s realm. But betrayal, jealousy, and ancient blood feuds fester unseen. Morgan Le Fay, now the mother of Arthur’s only son, Mordred, has become the focus of Merlin’s age old quest to ensure the survival of the house of Pendragon. From the east comes the shattering news that Guenevere may have a rival for Lancelot’s love. A bleak shadow falls again across Camelot and across the sacred isle of Avalon, where Roman priests threaten the life of the Lady herself. At the center of the storm is Guenevere, torn between her love for her husband, her people, and Sir Lancelot of the Lake. With rare and intuitive magic, Rosalind Miles brings to life a legendary woman’s bravery and passion, and all the pageantry, heartbreak, violence, and beauty of an age gone by.

The Child of the Holy Grail

Guenevere…
Last in a line of proud queens elected to rule the fertile lands of the West, true owner of the legendary Round Table, guardian of the Great Goddess herself…
a woman whose story has never been told until nowBrokenhearted at her parting from Lancelot and anguished over the loss of the sacred Hallows of the Goddess, Queen Guenevere reconciles with Arthur, although the fragile bond between them is threatened by a new presence at Camelot. Prince Mordred, Arthur’s son by Morgan Le Fay, has come to stay and to be proclaimed heir to Guenevere and Arthur’s kingdoms. Arthur has even designated for his son the Siege Perilous, the one unoccupied seat at the Round Table the seat reserved for ‘the Son of the Most Peerless Knight in All the World.’But at the knighting, when Mordred takes his seat, the great Round Table, owned by the Queens of the Summer Country since time immemorial, cracks down the center. A terrible darkness falls over Camelot and in the midst of the chaos appears a new knight, Sir Galahad. Barely fourteen, he may hold the key to the mystery of the stolen Hallows, which the Christians believe to be the Holy Grail. The scene sets into motion the final brilliant cycle of the Arthurian legend the Quest for the Grail and the fall of Camelot which brings Guenevere to the brink of the most dreaded tragedy of all…
and may ultimately complete her destiny as the greatest and most powerful Queen of the Isles.

Queen of the Western Isle

In the golden time of Arthur and Guenevere, the Island of the West shines like an emerald in the sea one of the last strongholds of Goddess worship and Mother right. Isolde is the only daughter and heiress of Ireland’s great ruling queen, a lady as passionate in battle as she is in love. La Belle Isolde, like her mother, is famed for her beauty, but she is a healer instead of a warrior, of all surgeons, the best among the isles. A natural peacemaker, Isolde is struggling to save Ireland from a war waged by her dangerously reckless mother. The Queen is influenced by her lover, Sir Marhaus, who urges her to invade neighboring Cornwall and claim it for her own, a foolhardy move Isolde is determined to prevent. But she is unable to stop them. King Mark of Cornwall sends forth his own champion to do battle with the Irish Sir Tristan of Lyonesse a young, untested knight with a mysterious past. A member of the Round Table, Tristan has returned to the land of his birth after many years in exile, only to face Ireland s fiercest champion in combat. When he lies victorious but near death on the field of battle, Tristan knows that his only hope of survival lies to the West. He must be taken to Ireland to be healed, but he must go in disguise for if the Queen finds out who killed her beloved, he will follow Marhaus into the spirit world. His men smuggle him into the Queen s fort at Dubh Lein, and beg the princess to save him. From this first meeting of star crossed lovers, an epic story unfolds. Isolde s skill and beauty impress Tristan s uncle, King Mark of Cornwall, and knowing nothing of her love for Tristan he decides to make her his queen, a match her mother encourages as a way to bind their lands under one rule. Tristan and Isolde find themselves caught in the crosscurrents of fate, as Isolde is forced to marry a man she does not love. Taking pity on her daughter, the Queen gives her an elixir that will create in her a passion for King Mark and ensure that their love will last until death. But on the voyage to Ireland, Tristan and Isolde drink the love potion by accident, sealing their already perilous love forever. So begins the first book of the Tristan and Isolde trilogy, another stunning example of the storyteller s craft from Rosalind Miles, author of the beloved and bestselling Guenevere trilogy. From the Hardcover edition.

The Maiden of White Hands

Isolde’s day has come. In Ireland her mother, the Queen, lies dying. The throne of the Emerald Isle, one of the last strongholds of the Goddess, awaits her. But while Ireland is her destiny, Isolde is already Queen of Cornwall, trapped in a loveless marriage to the mean spirited King Mark. Her true love is his nephew, Tristan of Lyonesse, who has never married, remaining faithful to Isolde.

Across the sea in France, a young princess who shares Isolde s name enters the story. King Hoel named his daughter in honor of Isolde of Ireland, but young Isolde of France has always been determined to outdo Queen Isolde. She, too, is a physician and is called Blanche Mains, for her white hands and healing touch. Blanche is of an age to be married, and she has chosen her husband Tristan of Lyonesse. Her father objects, but fate favors Blanche. King Mark has become suspicious of his wife and nephew, and when Tristan is wounded in battle, he sees a chance to separate them for good.

Mark sends Tristan to France to be healed by Blanche, who makes the most of the opportunity. Tristan s letters to Isolde are intercepted, and he is told that she has given him up. Near death from his wounds, Tristan sends one last desperate letter to Isolde by a trusted servant. He is dying, he tells her, and asks for one final sign of their love. If she can forgive him for marrying another, she must come to France in a ship set with white sails. If the ship s sails are black, he will know that she no longer loves him. Isolde immediately leaves for France, but when Blanche sees the white sails from the castle window, she pulls the curtains and tells Tristan that they are black. To her horror, he turns his face to the wall and dies.

There ends the traditional medieval story of Tristan and Isolde with betrayal, death, and grief. But the original Irish legend ends differently, and so does this book, with magic and drama as only Rosalind Miles can write it.

Isolde, The Lady of the Sea

The final thrilling chapter in the Tristan and Isolde trilogy…
Isolde, heir to the throne of the queens, is now a sovereign in her own right. With the glories of the throne comes the responsibility of a queen, and Isolde knows she must return to her beloved Western Isle. She can no longer tolerate her marriage to King Mark of Cornwall, a marriage she has accepted for years in order to save her country from the threat of war and to be near her only love, Mark’s nephew Tristan of Lyonesse. King Mark, always cowardly and spiteful, is too heavily influenced by his monks and counselors, who loathe the powerful and independent Isolde. And so she leaves Cornwall for good and comes home to Ireland, where her lords face a growing threat from the warlike Picti, who live in the barren highlands to the north of England. The Picti have a bold new king, Darath, who is determined to take the riches of Ireland for his own people, whether by war or by marriage with Isolde. Isolde gathers her armies to confront the Picti and faces a violent conflict as well with King Mark, who vows he will not let a prize like Isolde, and Ireland, slip from his grasp. Isolde is last in a line of famous warrior queens who have guarded Ireland from time before memory, and now she and her knight, Tristan must play out their fate and face her enemies in a final battle, a war that could spell ruin for them both.

I, Elizabeth

Publicly declared a bast*ard at the age of three, daughter of a disgraced and executed mother, last in the line of succession to the throne of England, Elizabeth I inherited an England ravaged by bloody religious conflict, at war with Spain and France, and badly in debt. When she died in 1603, after a forty five year reign, her empire spanned two continents and was united under one church, victorious in war, and blessed with an overflowing treasury. What’s more, her favorites William Shakespeare, Sir Francis Drake, and Sir Walter Raleigh had made the Elizabethan era a cultural Golden Age still remembered today. But for Elizabeth the woman, tragedy went hand in hand with triumph. Politics and scandal forced the passionate queen to reject her true love, Robert Dudley, and to execute his stepson, her much adored Lord Essex. Now in this spellbinding novel, Rosalind Miles brings to life the woman behind the myth. By turns imperious, brilliant, calculating, vain, and witty, this is the Elizabeth the world never knew. From the days of her brutal father, Henry VIII, to her final dying moments, Elizabeth tells her story in her own words.

The Women’s History of the World

Men dominate history because they write it. This book offers a reappraisal which aims to re establish women’s importance at the centre of the worldwide history of revolution, empire, war and peace. As well as looking at the influence of ordinary women, it looks at those who have shaped history.

Ben Jonson

Ben Jonson is known to most people only as the author of one or two masterly plays which regularly appear in the drama repertoire. He is less known for his other work encompassing poetry, criticism, masque and a lifetime of linguistic and lexicographical study. Rosalind Miles presents a comprehensive critical study of the whole of Jonson’s oeuvre. In doing so, she reveals a more varied picture of Jonson not the accomplished artist so much as the struggling craftsman.

The Female Form

Women have found a powerful and authentic voice in the novel above all other literary forms. Indeed, Rosalind Miles asserts that women have achieved supremacy in the writing of fiction, capturing the height of a traditional male stronghold. But what does this victory amount to? Do women writers today, enjoying possession of the citadel, still find that they have to re invent in every generation their right to speak out as women? The stature and achievement of the great women novelists of the past Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, George Eliot is beyond dispute. But their success has conferred on them the status of ‘honorary men’, a designation which neatly avoids the issue of their distinctively female contribution to the development of the novel form. In this century, Rosalind Miles argues, such evasion has become impossible. The issue has changed with the new context. Is it true to say that women write a different kind of novel from men? Have the rules been re written with the supremacy of the woman novelist in our own day? Rosalind Miles looks at this problem and answers its implications by looking at the female tradition in the novel and its impact on the work of women novelists writing today.

Who Cooked the Last Supper?

Men dominate history because men write history. There have been many heroes, but no hero*ines. This is the book that overturns that ‘phallusy of history,’ giving voice to the true history of the world which, always and forever, must include the contributions of millions of unsung women. Here is the history you never learned but should have!Without politics or polemics, this brilliant and witty book overturns centuries of preconceptions to restore women to their rightful place at the center of culture, revolution, empire, war, and peace. Spiced with tales of individual women who have shaped civilization, celebrating the work and lives of women around the world, distinguished by a wealth of research, Who Cooked the Last Supper?? redefines our concept of historical reality.

Hell Hath No Fury

An engaging collection that uncovers injustices in history and overturns misconceptions about the role of women in warWhen you think of war, you think of men, right? Not so fast. In Hell Hath No Fury, Rosalind Miles and Robin Cross prove that although many of their stories have been erased or forgotten, women have played an integral role in wars throughout history. In witty and compelling biographical essays categorized and alphabetized for easy reference, Miles and Cross introduce us to war leaders Cleopatra, Elizabeth I, Margaret Thatcher; combatants Molly Pitcher, Lily Litvak, Tammy Duckworth; spies Belle Boyd, Virginia Hall, Noor Inayat Khan; reporters and propagandists Martha Gellhorn, Tokyo Rose, Anna Politkov skaya; and more. These are women who have taken action and who challenge our perceived notions of womanhood. Some will be familiar to readers, but most will not, though their deeds during wartime were every bit as important as their male contemporaries more heralded contributions.

Related Authors

Leave a Comment