The cardinal's man - M.G. Sinclair

It is more than 100 years until the French revolution but France is already a turbulent nation. The thirty years war has spread across Europe fostering alliances and enemies and internal threats from peasants to the nobility are beginning to emerge. Presiding over this fragile state is the King, Louis XIII, and his chief minister Cardinal Richelieu who is feared and loathed in equal measure. Sebastian Morra was born into abject poverty and with terrible deformities and yet through a mixture of chance, guile and courage we follow his journey from these inauspicious beginnings to an unlikely position of influence within Richelieu's inner circle. Along the way he fights for his life in the filth strewn streets of Paris, crosses swords with the nobility who he publicly satirises and becomes entangled in the dangerous political machinations of the court.The Cardinal's Man gives a fascinating insight into this precarious period of French history and in Sebastian provides us with an endearing and sharp-witted companion whose triumph over adversity makes the reader want to cheer at every turn.