January 30th 1649. England is not a country that wishes to execute its divinely-appointed king. Yet Charles 1 finds himself shivering on a scaffold in Whitehall, with the axe man by his side ...In this brilliantly atmospheric novel, Simon Parke explores one of the most gripping tales in English history by weaving together four coinciding stories, those of Charles, including his extraordinary year-long imprisonment on the Isle of Wight ...Robert Hammond, the poor man who found himself the king's gaoler ...Charles' remarkable mistress (written out of the records) the super-spy Jane Whorwood ...and of course, the brilliant and depressed Oliver Cromwell working through his own demons of religion, politics, love and death.