A Noble Cunning: The Countess and the Tower is based on the true story of Winifred Maxwell, Countess of Nithsdale—a persecuted Catholic noblewoman who traveled alone from Scotland to rescue her husband from the Tower of London the night before his scheduled execution in 1716. “I see her as an unsung feminist hero whose story should be much better known,” author Patricia Hoffman Bernstein ’66 says. Bernstein (above) has written three works of nonfiction, including Ten Dollars to Hate: The Texas Man Who Fought the Klan, which was named one of the 53 (yes, 53) best books about Texas by the Austin American-Statesman. A Noble Cunning is her debut novel—at age 78. It may be a departure for the Texan, but it became a No. 1 Amazon bestseller in historical Scottish fiction immediately upon release, with one reviewer calling it “a riveting tale of one woman’s courage and determination.”
A Noble Cunning
By Patricia Bernstein ’66
History Through Fiction, March 2023
