Diane de Poitiers

First edition, first printing.  174pp, with black and white plate frontispiece.  Black cloth-covered boards with gilt lettering on spine.  8vo.  Cloth a little pushed at spine ends.  Slight lean.  Boots Booklovers Library label on front panel.  There's some patchy toning on the endpapers, else internally neat, clean, fresh and tight. Barbara Cartland (1901-2000), one of the best-selling authors of all time, is better remembered for her many historical romances but she also wrote a number of biographies of historical figures.  This one explores the life of Diane de Poitiers (1500-1566), the French noblewoman, mistress to Henri II and major patron of French Renaissance architecture.  A hard to find title (unlike many of Cartland's novels).