Queen Elizabeth is dying, and England is in turmoil.
There are witch hunts going on. No one is safe, not even Will's grandmother. The penalty is death by drowning.
So Will is sent to London to clear the Marsden family name. He gets to meet the Queen -- but he hasn't bargained for Doctor Dee, the great magician she admires so, nor for the plots and conspiracies that surround her. It's a race against time for Will and his friend Meg, and they have dangerous enemies.
But Will discovers some strange parallels with his grandmother's experiences as a girl at the court of Queen Mary, Elizabeth's bitter rival ...
Terry Deary was born in Sunderland in 1946 and now lives in County Durham, where the Marsden family of the Tudor Chronicles live. Once an actor and a teacher of English and drama, he is one of Britain's bestselling children's authors, with over 140 books to his credit, including the phenomenally successful Horrible Histories.