I read The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell basking in the January sunshine on holiday in the Canaries. It is about the short life of Lucrezia, Duchess of Ferrera, who in this version of events is murdered by her husband the Duke when she is aged only fifteen, having failed to produce an heir within a year of marriage.

The Duchess is one of Cosimo de’Medici’s children, the powerhouse family of Renaissance Florence, and is spirited, a talented painter, well-educated and destined for much greater things than her short life brings her. In contrast, her husband has a split personality, going from charming romancer one minute to callous murderer the next, dispatching the lover of one of his sisters before then dispatching his wife. Of course, the infertility turns out to be his fault not hers, but by the time that becomes apparent, it is too late for Lucrezia.

This is an immersive, dark tale that draws you deeper and deeper into the inevitability set up at the start and was a fascinating read.