Set in the last years of Elizabeth I's reign, Winston Graham's The Grove of Eagles seamlessly blends historical fact and fiction in a rich tale full of unforgettable characters. In 1588 the Spanish Armada had been defeated in the English Channel and the whole of Elizabethan England was alert for the revenge that surely had to follow. On the Cornish coast, men like John Killigrew - in charge of the castle at Pendennis - were vital to the survival of the country, and on their backs rested the trust of those defending the nation. His eldest but base-born son, Maugan, emerges in the novel, through his loneliness and his love, as a touchingly honest and believable character who is, above all things, a man of his word.