You are about to listen to a BBC podcast and I'd like to tell you a bit about what goes into making one.

I'm Sadata Sese, an assistant commissioner of podcasts for BBC Sounds.

I pull a lot of levers to support a diverse range of podcasts on all sorts of subjects,

relationships, identity, comedy, even one that mixes poetry, music and inner city life.

So one day I'll be helping host develop their ideas, the next fact-checking, a feature,

and the next looking at how a podcast connects with its audience, and maybe that's you.

So if you like this podcast, check out some others on BBC Sounds.

BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts.

In a week when we've been surrounded by echoes of the past, today on Open Book, we're delving into history through the lives of women as told by women.

I'll be speaking later to graphic novelist Pauze Simmons and

Lizzie Stewart about their intimate, feminist and often very funny illustrations about the

nuances of everyday life in past times. But first, the new novel from Maggie O'Farrell.

It's a book rich in painily detail about one woman whose name might be familiar but whose story lies in the shadows.

The author of nine novels and a highly acclaimed memoir, O'Farrell is perhaps best known for her women's prize-winning smash hit of 2020, Hamnet, which imagined the brief life of Shakespeare's son.

Staying in the 16th century, her latest offering the marriage portrait turns O'Farrell's trademark

sharp focus on Renaissance Italy.

Centre stage is Lucrezia, the artistic and independently minded daughter of Cosmo de Medici,

the Grand Duke of Tuscany.

But her fate is seemingly sealed from the start with the fear that her dukeal husband, Alfonso, intends to kill her.

It's a story which blends facts with fiction, history with poetry and literary detail with suspenseful thrills,

and I'm pleased to say that Maggi O'Farrell joins me on the line from Edinburgh now.

Maggie, your last book, Hamlet, zoomed in on Anne Hathaway,

...