"Did Eleanor get lost in Aquitaine?" was the e-mail that Penman received from one of her anxious readers after this, the second part of a trilogy that started with When Christ and His Saints Slept (1994), seemed to be a long time in coming. Well, the wait is over and Time and Chance continues from the year 1156 the story of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Central to this account is the famous episode of Thomas Becket's appointment as Archbishop of Canterbury, and Henry's betrayal of Eleanor. The murder of Thomas Becket, which is hardly giving away the plot, is still perhaps Christendom's greatest scandal. This is historical fiction conceived on a grand scale, graced with good period detail and a gripping narrative pace.

Sharon Penman has been hailed by Publishers' Weekly as 'an historical novelist of the first rank'. Her bestseller about Richard III, THE SUNNE IN SPLENDOUR (1982) is still selling, and her acclaimed Welsh trilogy was similarly successful. WHEN CHRIST AND HIS SAINTS SLEPT (1994) is the first part of the trilogy which this book continues.