'Poisoners, whores, witches and murderers' - or so their enemies claimed. From Queen Nefertiti of Egypt, to the 'villainous' Catherine de Medici and her flying squadron, to England's 'Gloriana' Elizabeth I, and the modern phenomenon of female prime ministers - Golda Meir, Indira Ghandi, Margaret Thatcher and Benazir Bhutto -- Claudia Gold looks at three and a half thousand years of the world's most exceptional rulers - all of them women. -- Publisher.