Was there ever a family worse than this?

This is the intriguing territory explored in Sarah Dunant’s new novel In the Name of the Family, the sequel to 2013’s Blood and Beauty. The exploits of lusty, capricious Alexander and restless, ruthless Cesare are vibrant and arresting, but it is Lucrezia’s story which best reveals these sensual, dangerous times.

Lucrezia may wear dazzling dresses, but she is scrutinized by “spies from all over the country, their mission to note her every gesture and to price each piece of jewellery, every yard of cloth.” She has lost the love of her life through her brother’s brutal machinations, forced to leave her son in Rome as she travels to marry a stranger. The upkeep of her lucrative appearance is “hard work; all the plucking, perfuming, creaming, corseting, lacing, powdering…”

Meanwhile, Pope Alexander, a rapacious “bear of a man”, is “in love with women, wealth, orange blossom and the taste of sardines”. He has ordered countless assassinations, is changeable as a sprite, but he is also funny and theatrical.

As for Cesare, seen through the eyes of Machiavelli, inventor of “Realpolitik”, he seems to care for nothing but war and sex. Cesare’s mercurial nature can spill over into galling cruelty.

Dunant’s poetic style raises the novel above titillating gossip, and her striking imagery renders it as rich as a Pinturicchio fresco. This gripping, sumptuous book shows that, excessive and ferocious as they doubtless were, the Borgias were truly something.