TIME and Chance is the second part in Sharon Penman's enthralling triology about Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine.

It's the story the extraordinary, relationship between Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. But it is also a portrait of one of the most influential women in British history. Not only a loving mother and wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine was Queen of both France and England, a powerful woman in her own right, and shrewdly intelligent.

(Michael Joseph/Penguin £17.99)