Lady Jane Grey was a bright, beautiful fourteen-year-old, your classic overachiever. Within a year she was also a married woman and the pawn in an ambitious plot to seize the English throne after Edward VI's death in 1553. She was queen for just nine days. By the author of the Crusades trilogy (There Will Be Wolves, Shadows on a Sword, and Lionheart's Scribe).

Geoffrey has a problem. A highwayman is collecting tolls in the King's road, for a joke. His name is Robin Hood. Geoffrey doesn't like pranksters. This one is "a speck in the eye of the king, and must be removed." Geoffrey, Sheriff of Nottingham, will have Robin Hood's head. Otherwise, he may find his own on the block.

The Sultan was betrayed by his wife, and vowed it would never happen again. To ensure the faithfulness of his brides, he makes a practice of marrying a new woman each evening and killing her at dawn - until he marries Shahrazad. She begins a new story each evening, but will not finish it until the next, and so she stays alive. But what happens when Shahrazad runs out of stories? Enter Mirjan, a poor serving girl, and a spinner of tales... Here is a new spin on the tales of One Thousand and One Arabian Nights and a new heroine as magical as Shahrazad herself.

1428: The battle rages between the English and French for control of France, a struggle called the Hundred Years War. One young peasant girl is determined to stop it. Jeannette d'Arc is visited by the saints in her visions and makes a promise to lead an army that will put the dauphin on the French throne. So begins the legend of Joan of Arc, the Maid of Domremy.

"I heard the repeated ring of blade striking blade, saw what seemed to my untrained eye to be no more than a meaningless movement of figures dodging, weaving, and staggering over the uneven ground of the moor. And then, out of all this, my view became that of a veritable net of steel whirling around the man's head - because now he was fighting alone, his companion disarmed, sword arm drooping, the other arm clutched across his chest..." Robert the Bruce was one of Scotland's great heroes who miraculously led his people to victory over the superior numbers and weapons of the English time and time again. Here is his epic story as told by Martin Crawford, a young warrior and spy who fought by his side.

The Pharaoh has decreed that all male Hebrew babies are to be killed. Almah hides her brother in a basket among the reeds, and hopes. But Mosis is found - and claimed - by the Pharaoh's daughter. Whether it be a blessing or a curse, this is the beginning of a great story.

"Anne was a witch; I never doubted it. She deserved to die; neither have I doubted that. She wished for my death long before the executioner's sword glittered above her own neck: Month upon month I lived in terror of poison being slipped into my cup. Yet, an hour before the blade bit into her flesh, they say she prayed for my forgiveness. Had the jailers brought me her message, would I have forgiven her? No. Never." Mary Tudor has been one of the most hated rulers in English history, remembered as a fanatical Catholic who ruthlessly and bloodily suppressed the Protestant faith and her rivals for the throne. But here is the tale of her bitter and frightening childhood, cast off along with her mother by Henry VIII in his quest for a male heir. It is enough to poison the soul of a saint, and Mary was never that.

Elizabeth I, "Gloriana," was one of England's greatest rulers. Her forty-five year reign was at once prosperous and full of conflict and intrigue, but her life before that was a roller coaster ride. She was a princess and heir to the throne, then a disinherited bastard; she was showered with wealth and privilege, then she was an accused traitor awaiting execution in the Tower of London. Elizabeth tells the exciting story of her young life in this companion to Mary, Bloody Mary, taking up the Tudor family saga at Henry VIII's death.

Who was Mary Magdalene? She is a mysterious and fascinating figure in biblical history. Donna Jo Napoli fills in the many gaps in a story as strange and full of tragedy and miracles as any of her fairy tale novelizations. By the author of Magic Circle and Zel.

The names of Lewis and Clark ring through American history, but how many remember that their harrowing expedition through the wilderness was led by a courageous young native woman called Sacagawea? This is her story. It is another beautifully crafted tale of adventure, hardship, love and loss by the author of Island of the Blue Dolphins. Readers looking for a different perspective on this amazing life story should read Joseph Bruchac's Sacajawea.

"Throughout my life I've usually been unnoticed, like a spider on the wall." Intelligent but unable to speak, Spider is sold by his brother to be deliberately crippled and made into a performing monstrosity, a freak show marvel. Unexpectedly, Spider is rescued. Peter Abelard is in need of a servant whose discretion is assured, and Spider finds himself a co-conspirator in the greatest clandestine love affair in history.

Marie Therese is the granddaughter of Maria Theresa, Empress of Austria and the daughter of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. She is cursed with the Sorrow of Being a Girl, and so will never rule France. Mousseline, as her family calls her, also suffers from the Sorrow of Shortness and the Sorrow of Etiquette. But these great trials soon fade to insignificance as the French Revolution comes, bringing with it the execution of Mousseline's parents and her own imprisonment in the Dark Tower...

Dunia is a runaway peasant girl. She never expected to meet the royal family of Russia. But the mysterious Father Grigory manages to wangle Dunia into the Romanov household. The only obstacle to Dunia's newfound happiness is the ill-tempered and rude Grand Duchess Anastasia. Will they always be enemies? But greater storms threaten the Russian court. The heir to the throne is ill, very ill. And the only one who seems able to help him is Father Grigory, an ambitious man whose mind seethes with calculation. Just what is the good Father scheming?

We all know the story of Robin Hood, but what about Maid Marion? Was she just a damsel in distress, waiting to be rescued? Perhaps not. Theresa Tomlinson paints the portrait of another legendary and heroic figure, one far more mysterious than Robin Hood. She is the Forestwife, a woman of magical healing powers, hidden in the depths of Sherwood Forest. Readers won't want to miss the sequel, Child of the May.

On September 7, 1838 Grace Darling, the lighthouse-keeper's daughter, sees a shipwreck. She herself rows out with her father to rescue the Farforshire's desperate passengers from the hungry seas. Grace's heroism earns her the admiration and attention of the whole country - and the anger of the local lifeboatmen who feel cheated out of their reward. Grace's courageous act brings her endless trouble, as much from those who admire her as those who suspect her of mercenary motives. A tragic Victorian adventure.

Victim or murderess? Mary Queen of Scots remains one of the most controversial women in history. The beautiful and much-beloved queen of Scotland was the focus of plot and intrigue for decades. She spent her last days in the Tower of London, and was finally beheaded by her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I. But this is a tale of her earlier days, when a young street performer called Nicola became the "queen's own fool", her devoted servant and confidante, one of the very few Mary could trust...