Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • The Waiting Game

  • The Untold Story of the Women Who Served the Tudor Queens
  • By: Nicola Clark
  • Narrated by: Karen Cass, Nicola Clark
  • Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins
  • 5.0 out of 5 stars (1 rating)

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
The Waiting Game cover art

The Waiting Game

By: Nicola Clark
Narrated by: Karen Cass, Nicola Clark
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £24.99

Buy Now for £24.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Final Year of Anne Boleyn cover art
Crypt cover art
Great and Horrible News cover art
Ancestors cover art
Vital Organs cover art
Mortal Monarchs cover art
The Catherine Howard Conspiracy cover art
The Princes in the Tower cover art
The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England cover art
Buried cover art
The Murder of Mr. Wickham cover art
Ladies-in-Waiting cover art
The Housekeeper's Tale cover art

Summary

'Written in a lively, accessible style, The Waiting Game is full of insight' Suzannah Lipscomb, Literary Review

Every Tudor Queen had ladies-in-waiting. They were her confidantes and her chaperones. Only the Queen's ladies had the right to enter her most private chambers, spending hours helping her to get dressed and undressed, caring for her clothes and jewels, listening to her secrets. But they also held a unique power. A quiet word behind the scenes, an appropriately timed gift, a well-negotiated marriage alliance were all forms of political agency wielded expertly by women.

The Waiting Game explores the daily lives of ladies-in-waiting, revealing the secrets of recruitment, costume, what they ate, where (and with whom) they slept. We meet María de Salinas, who travelled to England with Catherine of Aragon when just a teenager and spied for her during the divorce from Henry VIII. Anne Boleyn's lady-in-waiting Jane Parker was instrumental in the execution of not one, but two queens. And maid-of-honour Anne Basset kept her place through the last four consorts, negotiating the conflicting loyalties of her birth family, her mistress the Queen, and even the desires of the King himself. As Henry changed wives, and changed the very fabric of the country's structure besides, these women had to make choices about loyalty that simply didn't exist before. The Waiting Game is the first time their vital story has been told.
©2023 Nicola Clark (P)2023 Orion Publishing Group Limited

What listeners say about The Waiting Game

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.