Leonie Frieda

Swedish by birth, but educated in Britain, Germany and France, Leonie Frieda speaks five languages. Her research on Catherine de Medici has taken her to Paris, Florence and Rome, as well as the châteaux de la Loire, and in 2004 Weidenfeld and Nicolson published Leonie’s biography Catherine de Medici (‘A stunning biography, which brings to life a heroic woman and the tumultuous, cruel and gaudy times in which she lived.’ Paul Johnson), now the LionsGate+ original series 'The Serpent Queen'.

The Deadly Sisterhood, looking at the women who wielded the real power behind the throne in Renaissance Italy, was published in 2012 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

Her biography of Francois I^er, Francis I: The Maker of Modern France, was published in April 2018 by Weidenfeld & Nicholson in the UK and by HarperCollins in the USA.