Lady Godiva comes alive in a new historical novel that lays bare the woman behind the legend...

It's hard not to start reading Godiva without a feeling of intense sadness ... that the author never lived to see her book published.

A respected academic and expert in Celtic languages and sociology, Jones died shortly after completing Godiva.

Her first - and only - novel must therefore stand as a lasting tribute to her talents as both a woman of letters and a gifted author.

According to the popular story, the beautiful Godiva, wife of Lovric, the Earl of Mercia, in the 11th century, rode naked, and hidden only by her long hair, through the streets of Coventry to save her people from oppressive taxation.

Here Jones pitches Godiva's story against the compelling background of the childless Edward the Confessor's struggle to manipulate the succession as the Normans circle and wait to pounce on the English throne.

Lovric and his wife, two of the king's most powerful vassals, are inevitably drawn into the machinations at court.

When Edward manipulates their son into a treasonable act and makes him a pawn in his power play, Godiva's maternal instincts rise to the fore and the stage is set for one of the greatest stories in British history.

Jones has taken the bare bones of the traditional tale and turned Godiva into a real woman facing the harsh realities of life in a man's world - a world in which she will be tested to the limits of her endurance.

Thus Jones creates a flesh and blood character with all those human vulnerabilities that are often stripped away by years of mythology and the constant re-telling of a story.

This Godiva is more than just a head of hair ; she is a woman that a modern girl can empathise with - independent, intelligent, resourceful and, above all, compassionate.

Defying all conventions, she has an affair with a much younger man and hands out sacks of flour to stop her husband's serfs from starving.

Godiva's legendary naked horse ride through the streets of Coventry, which in this story is an act of penance demanded by King Edward, creates a far more human picture than the alabaster figure portrayed by artists down the centuries.

This woman is pitched like a boat in a storm by her lurching horse, feels the pain of chafed, unclothed skin, is thrown off her mount into the mud and has to be levered back on again by a devastated lady in waiting.

All in all, Godiva's supposedly greatest moment turns into a distressing and humiliating ordeal relieved only by the sight of a child whose life she helped save by her gift of free flour to feed him.

Jones uses authentic detail which blends seamlessly into the story without the nagging feeling that the author is needlessly embellishing the plotline merely to show off their knowledge of the period.

A note at the end of the book puts Godiva into a historical perspective and helpfully separates known facts from the 'stuff ' of legend.

A tale of sex, spies, chastity and power, this is a romantic, sexy, gritty and, of course, revelatory book. But what is revealed is not always what you might have expected in the tale of Lady Godiva...