Ford Madox Ford

The Fifth Queen (1906-1908) is a trilogy of novels by Ford Madox Ford. Set during the reign of Henry VIII, Ford’s trilogy recreates Tudor England in a masterful story of court intrigue, romance, and betrayal. Focusing on the tragic figure of Katharine Howard, the fifth wife of the King, Ford investigates the interconnection of sex and power in a political atmosphere clouded by violence and espionage. Depicting some of the era’s most notorious figures, including Thomas Cromwell, Bloody Mary, and the King himself, Ford makes history both entertaining and undeniably human. Brought to the court of King Henry VIII by her cousin Thomas Culpeper, Katharine Howard, a noblewoman whose family’s fortunes had been in decline for some time, inadvertently catches the eye of his majesty. Given a position as a lady in waiting for Lady Mary, Howard—though opposed by the brutally efficient schemer Thomas Cromwell—soon distinguishes herself in the eyes of the King, who makes her his fifth Queen. Thrust into the spotlight at the age of seventeen, she finds herself forced into an impossible role as a public figure whose every move could enrage her notoriously violent husband. Married to the Henry for a brief time before she was unceremoniously divorced and beheaded, Howard has traditionally been seen as a minor figure in the history of Tudor England. For Ford, however, a master storyteller with an eye for tragedy and a skill for developing flawed, convincingly human characters, Howard is a woman whose life and death are not only worthy of literature, but instructive for the men and women of Edwardian England. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Ford Madox Ford’s The Fifth Queen Trilogy is a classic work of British literature reimagined for modern readers.

No More Parades (1924) is a novel by Ford Madox Ford. Set during the First World War, the novel is the story of Christopher Tietjens, a brilliant statistician and wealthy aristocrat known as “the last Tory.” As he moves from a faithless marriage into an affair of his own, eventually volunteering to fight under dubious—perhaps suicidal—motives, Tietjens appears both symbolic and tragically human, a casualty of a dying era dedicating its final breaths to death, despair, and destruction. Adapted for television twice—a 1964 series starring Ronald Hines and Judi Dench, as well as a 2012 series starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Rebecca Hall—Parade’s End is essential to Ford’s reputation as a leading novelist of the twentieth century. In the words of W. H. Auden, “There are not many English novels which deserve to be called great: Parade’s End is one of them.” Having gone to war to leave his troubled romantic life behind him, Christopher Tietjens is late to realize that the glories of battle are a dangerous fiction indeed. Now a Captain, he is responsible for thousands of soldiers on the front lines of France, most of whom were not born into fortune as he was. As a German assault rains fire on their vulnerable position, as Tietjens holds a dying comrade in his arms, as he witnesses the best minds of his generation go mad amid so much destruction, Tietjens attempts to maintain a shred of his own fractured humanity. Back at home, his unfaithful wife takes full advantage of his prolonged absence, but soon longs to draw Christopher back into her life. Tragic and emotionally piercing, No More Parade’s is a story of romance, war and betrayal that proves a brilliant sequel to Some Do Not. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Ford Madox Ford’s No More Parades is a classic work of British literature reimagined for modern readers.

No More Parades is the second book in Ford Madox Ford's landmark No More Parades series. It sets forth the maddening chaos that is war, from the meddling of civilians who have no knowledge or care of how much pain and disaster their meddling will cause to the destruction of relationships and lives brought on by the stress of war. This second instalment focuses on the main character Tietjens and his wife Sylvia's tempestuous relationship over the course of three days during the war. Ford writes books about war like no other. Ford's experience writing propaganda for the British government and his combat experience make the four books in this series some of the best books ever written about war in any language. Simply a masterpiece.

No More Parades is the second book in Ford Madox Ford's landmark No More Parades series. It sets forth the maddening chaos that is war, from the meddling of civilians who have no knowledge or care of how much pain and disaster their meddling will cause to the destruction of relationships and lives brought on by the stress of war. This second instalment focuses on the main character Tietjens and his wife Sylvia's tempestuous relationship over the course of three days during the war. Ford writes books about war like no other. Ford's experience writing propaganda for the British government and his combat experience make the four books in this series some of the best books ever written about war in any language. Simply a masterpiece.

The Fifth Queen trilogy consists of three historical novels, The Fifth Queen, Privy Seal and The Fifth Queen Crowned. The trilogy presents a fictionalized account of Katharine Howard's arrival at the Court of Henry VIII, her eventual marriage to the king, and her death. Katharine Howard is introduced as a devout Roman Catholic, impoverished, young noblewoman escorted by her fiery cousin Thomas Culpeper. By accident, she comes to the attention of the king, in a minor way at first, is helped to a position as a lady in waiting for the then bastard Lady Mary, Henry's eldest daughter, by her old Latin tutor Nicholas Udal. Udal is a spy for Thomas Cromwell, the Lord Privy Seal. As Katharine becomes involved with the many calculating, competing, and spying members of Henry VIII's Court, she gradually rises, almost against her will, in Court. She is brought more to the attention of the King, becomes involved with him, gets used by Cromwell, Bishop Gardiner and Thomas Cranmer as well as the less powerful though more personally attached Nicholas Throckmorton. Her connection to the latter puts her in some peril, as in January 1554 he is suspected of complicity in Wyatt's Rebellion and arrested, during which time Katherine is also briefly implicated. Katharine's forthrightness, devotion to the Old Faith and learning are what make her attractive to the King, along with her youth and physical beauty.

Reproduction of the original: The Fifth Queen Crowned by Ford Madox Ford

Reproduction of the original: The Fifth Queen and how she came to court by Ford Madox Ford

Reproduction of the original: The Fifth Queen and how she came to court by Ford Madox Ford

Reproduction of the original: The Fifth Queen Crowned by Ford Madox Ford

"Provence" may perhaps be described as the crystallisation of the main idea running through the Great Trade Route, which we published a year ago. Of that book Mr A. G. McDonnell wrote in the Observer: "It is an Indictment, a Philipic.... I know of no books to compare with this since Winwood Reade's Martyrdom of Man" But if "The Great Trade Route" was the destructive onslaught on dubious aspects of contemporary civilisation, "Provence" is the celebration of what might have been and what, according to Mr. Ford, may still yet be - contrasted with what is. For in that triangle of sun-baked , wind-swept, austere yet generous land, bounded as to its base by the Mediterranean and as to its sides, by the Rhone and the Alps, Mr Ford sees all the pride of past European splendour, the small healthy core of Europe's ailing present, the only promise for her future. How and why he sees all this his book alone can reveal, with its history, its moralisings, its descriptions vitalised and clarified by art.

The Magister Udal sat in the room of his inn in Paris, where customarily the King of France lodged such envoys as came at his expense. He had been sent there to Latinise the letters that passed between Sir Thomas Wyatt and the King's Ministers of France, for he was esteemed the most learned man in these islands. He had groaned much at being sent there, for he must leave in England so many loves-the great, blonde Margot Poins, that was maid to Katharine Howard; the tall, swaying Katharine Howard herself; Judge Cantre's wife that had fed him well; and two other women, with all of whom he had succeeded easily or succeeded in no wise at all. But the mission was so well paid-with as many crowns the day as he had had groats for teaching the Lady Mary of England-that fain he had been to go. Moreover, it was by way of being a favour of Privy Seal's. The magister had written for him a play in English; the rich post was the reward-and it was an ill thing, a thing the magister dreaded, to refuse the favours of Privy Seal. He consoled himself with the thought that the writing of letters in Latin might wash from his mouth the savour of the play he had written in the vulgar tongue.

His portrait of Catherine Howard, impulsive, warm-hearted, truth-speaking, yet daring admidst the most un-principled intrigue, is singularly attractive and life-like, making an admirable foil to the grimly-conceived Lady Mary.

A classic fantasy novel by Ford Madox Ford.

'The Bishop of Rome--' Thomas Cranmer began a hesitating speech. In the pause after the words the King himself hesitated, as if he poised between a heavy rage and a sardonic humour. He deemed, however, that the humour could the more terrify the Archbishop-and, indeed, he was so much upon the joyous side in those summer days that he had forgotten how to browbeat. 'Our holy father, ' he corrected the Archbishop. 'Or I will say my holy father, since thou art a heretic--' Cranmer's eyes had always the expression of a man's who looked at approaching calamity, but at the King's words his whole face, his closed lips, his brows, the lines from his round nose, all drooped suddenly downwards. 'Your Grace will have me write a letter to the-to his-to him--' The downward lines fixed themselves, and from amongst them the panic-stricken eyes made a dumb appeal to the griffins and crowns of his dark green hangings, for they were afraid to turn to the King. Henry retained his heavy look of jocularity: he jumped at a weighty gibe- 'My Grace will have thy Grace write a letter to his Holiness.'