Out of the shadows

Lucy, Countess of Bedford was one of the richest, most fashionable and influential women in England at the time of Shakespeare.  Married to the Earl of Bedford, the Queen's closest friend, cousin to Robert Sidney and patron of John Donne, she existed in a world of gossip, scandal and intrigue at the centre of a glittering world of celebrity.  Her fascinating life has never been the subject of a book, until now.  London in the early years of the seventeenth century was home to many outstanding literary figures, including William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson and John Donne. At a time when poets were …