Her ; foster-father made sottish attempts on Camila, and when repulsed sold her to a brutal young gypsy man who led her a dance for a year.
Beautiful young Queen of Scotland takes a lover, plots to kill off her sottish husband, succeeds but loses her throne and flees into the hands of her homely rival, Queen Elizabeth .
Williams has dug into the prose, focusing every sharp-eyed, cockeyed image, finding a broomstick for every daffy, airborne prank, split-seconding every sottish or schoolboy joke.