A sweeping historical novel set in Constantinople at the time of the Crusades

Constantinople, 1179
Princess Agnes of France is thirteen when she marries the heir to Byzantium, and empire unmatched in wealth, power - and glamour.

But once she sets foot in the Queen of Cities, a decadent world where dazzling luxury masks unspeakable cruelty, she realises that her husband has mighty enemies and treacherous allies.

As emperors rise and fall, Agnes learns to play the City's game - until she falls for a handsome rebel and finds that love is the most perilous game of all.

Glittering parties in marble palaces soon give way to bloody revolution, shipwreck and exile, and Agnes discovers there is no limit to what she will do to survive.

But only when crusading knights from her homeland attack the City does she finally understand what is truly worth fighting for.

Meg Clothier studied Classics at Cambridge, spent a year sailing a yacht from England to Alaska, then - after a few false starts - became a journalist. Her last job was working for Reuters in their Moscow before coming back to London to study for a masters degree in post-Soviet politics. Meg lives in London with her husband and two children.