It provides an unusually intimate and coherent picture of a woman who combined a remarkable aptitude for politics with a strong family commitment and warm friendships.

Margaret Howell read History at St Hilda's College, Oxford. Her book, Regalian Right in Medieval England, resulted from postgraduate research in the University of London, and she has also published several articles on the ecclesiastical and political history of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Her career in education included the headship of Nuneaton High School and a principal lectureship at the College of St Paul and St Mary, Cheltenham.