BESS OF HARDWICK: AN ELIZABETHAN TYCOON (SPIRAMUS) (PB)

Born a daughter of a relatively humble Midlands family, Elizabeth Hardwick was married and widowed four times, on each occasion raising her social status until she ultimately became the Countess of Shrewsbury. An enthusiast of fine buildings, she left behind Hardwick Hall and Chatsworth House as prime examples of Elizabethan prodigy houses. She also left important genetic legacies in the form of her descendants, and is an ancestress of much of the British aristocracy for the last few hundred years.