Renaissance Borgias & Machiavellian Magnetism.

Is there a family in history more dazzling, dangerous and notorious than the Borgias?  A powerhouse of the Italian Renaissance, their very name epitomizes the ruthless politics and sexual corruption of the Papacy.  The father, Pope Alexander VI, a consummate politician and a man with a voracious appetite both as Cardinal and Pope.  The younger Juan, womanizer and thug, and their lovely sister, Lucretia, whose very name has become a byword for poison, incest and intrigue.  But how much of the history about this remarkable family is actually true, and how much distorted, filtered through the age old mechanisms of political spin, propaganda and gossip?  What if the truth, the real history, is even more challenging?   Blood & Beauty: The Borgias by Sarah Dunant is an epic novel which sets out to capture the scope, the detail, the depth, the colour and the complexity of this utterly fascinating family.