Tag Archives: historical fiction

The Kingmaker’s Daughter – Philippa Gregory – 8/10

Historical Fiction October 15, 2012 Comments: 5

“Well, it makes no odds. A girl’s no good. A girl can’t take the throne.”

The fourth in Gregory’s highly successful series of The Cousins’ War (as the War of the Roses, as we now know it, was known at the time), The Kingmaker’s Daughter tells the story of Anne Neville, daughter of Richard Earl of Warwick. Warwick had put Edward IV on the throne, but Edward had proved to be not quite as malleable a puppet as Warwick had expected, by marrying Elizabeth Woodville (The White Queen, daughter of The Lady of the Rivers) in secret. Disappointed by his protege, Warwick turned to Edward’s other brothers in an effort to control the throne, and married his daughters off to meet his needs.

Anne’s life is portrayed in the other books as a sorry one – sickly, often overlooked for advantageous marriages, having to cater to her sister’s every whim. However, this book was considerably more positive than I had expected – Gregory imbues her with a resilience and loyalty which is not expected, given the other books I had read in the series. She deals with her father’s repeated changing of sides, her sister’s superiority and paranoia, the trouble caused by her over-ambitious brother-in-law; none of it causes her much distress. What is interesting is her introspection towards the end – she knows she has become hardened and deadened to political movements and changes that would have once scandalised her.

It is a little frustrating to read the same material again (admittedly through different eyes and different imagined private events), but Gregory does an admirable job of introducing enough new material to keep us interested and a different perspective on familiar events. My main objection to the prior books has been the sheer number of battles to wade through; this book misses some of the first ones out by starting only once Edward IV is on the throne, and ending before the Battle of Bosworth field which would ultimately conclude the Cousins’ War.

I found it interesting that Richard III is ultimately portrayed as sympathetic, loyal, in fact fatally loyal to the York cause, and not the evil hunchback that Shakespeare would have us remember. In this, Gregory builds on the not unsympathetic picture conjured in The White Queen.

If you’ve read the other three, you’ll read this one too. If you haven’t read the others, I wouldn’t worry about this one – start with The Lady of the Rivers (first chronologically) or The White Queen (best written) and see how you get on with the series.

The Shadow Queen – Rebecca Dean – 8/10

Historical Fiction, Review copies October 1, 2012 Comments: 4

“The day would come when her Uncle Sol would eat his heart out to be publicly recognised as being her relation – and when it did, she wouldn’t even give a nod in his direction.”

I nearly didn’t get my hands on this one; after a FedEx misadventure, there is still a copy of it floating around my office block which remains stubbornly elusive; thankfully Jonathan at Random House was generous enough to send a second copy across the Atlantic.

This beautifully presented novel (how could you not love all the Art Deco/ancient photograph stuff going on on the cover?) fictionalises the life of Wallis Simpson previously Spencer née Warfield, up to the point at which she meets (then) Prince Edward, heir to the throne which she would famously (infamously?) cause him to abdicate. We follow her fraught childhood, caught between the money and glamour of her family and the financial situation of her mother, left nearly penniless by a consumptive husband; her escape to Florida and a number of failed romances, and eventually her move to England in pursuit of the very highest of society.

It’s always hard to know with this style of book what is documented fact and what is author’s literary licence, but Wallis was a strong and well-fleshed out character; proud, strong, vivacious, not cowed by financial difficulty or bullying, always certain she was right but vulnerable as well. I loved the budding romance between Wallis and John Jasper, and was suitably outraged when it came to an end (that’s not a spoiler, right? Everyone knows she ended up marrying no-longer-King Edward).

Her subsequent romances were more difficult to deal with – as we moved into more reliably documented territory (her first and second marriages, her time in Florida, Washington and London), I struggled more to understand her motivations – I think Dean writes better when not constrained so much by documented history. The increasing emphasis on Wallis’ and others’ sexual liaisons also made me lose interest in the book a little – I know she had a scandalous reputation but it seemed like it was the easy thing to write about; I needed more context as to the mores of the time to know what was shocking and what was not.

Definitely worth a read if you are interested in the period, the story, or turn-of-the-century high society in the US.

Additional information:
Copy kindly provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Twice. If you work with me and you know where the original copy is that was Fedexed to me, let me know. I promise not to hurt you. Much.
Publisher: Broadway, 414 pages (paperback).
Order The Shadow Queen: A Novel of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor from Amazon*
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The Darling Strumpet – Gillian Bagwell – 5/10

Historical Fiction August 7, 2012 1 Comment

“His Majesty saw women on the stage in Frankfurt and thought it a charming innovation”


The Darling Strumpet is the story of a girl who was nothing special but rose to national and historic fame. She’s known as one of the first actresses, one of the first women to be given the privilege to play female roles on the boards, but also for winning the love of a number of rich men, including the King of England (Charles II).

I liked Nell. She’s safely characterised (for such a potentially contentious story); strong and witty and intelligent, she rises above the poverty of her oyster wenching days and the abuse from her mother, she befriends others easily and we only see a negative side when she is jealous of Charles’ other mistresses. Looking back, I feel like she wasn’t given much depth as a character, but I’m not sure that’s fair – I think my problem is that too much time was spent trading on her looks and not enough on her wit and brains.

Nell’s sister Rose and early suitor Hart are similarly safe, pleasant but uncontroversial characters. Bagwell shows much more vim in writing Rochester, Dorset, Monmouth and other scheming men – they each have their fatal flaws and their difficulties for Nell. In a sense they are presented less as players in her life and more obstacles to be overcome, hindrances in her rise to prominence.

What Bagwell did very well was the historical events of the time – the great fire of London, the plague, the return of King Charles II from exile. You always have to wonder how accurate these things are, but they were slotted into the story well and Nell’s grief at losing so much of her home town was not something I had expected, but was a nice touch. Similarly her financial insecurity, being wholly dependent on Charles’ goodwill, was an eye-opener for me.

On the whole, I found this a little bawdy for my liking – too much romping about in bed with noblemen and kings, and not enough time on stage.

Additional information:
Copy provided by the publisher in return for an honest review.
Publisher: Avon, 414 pages (paperback)
Pre-order The Darling Strumpet from Amazon*
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The Queen’s Secret – Victoria Lamb – 6/10 (DNF)

Historical Fiction, Review copies May 22, 2012 Leave a comment

“Who would have thought the orphaned daughter of a Moorish slave could find such favour at the English court?”

Lucy Morgan, a young Moorish singer, finds herself catapulted into the Queen’s favour at a summer progress. She becomes a secret emissary between lovers and spies; with assassination plots abounding, it won’t be long before Lucy’s world comes crashing down around her ears…

I gave up on this after about 180 pages; I got fed up of the constant to-and-fro of the love triangle of Queen Elizabeth I, Robert Dudley and Lady Essex (Lettice Knollys); while Lucy was a sympathetic character with interesting friends, too much of the plot revolved around the women’s jealousy. Meanwhile, Walsingham is either plotting with the assassins or blissfully ignorant of their presence. The book failed to sustain my interest – I can’t pinpoint anything particularly deficient, it simply bored me.

Additional information:
Copy provided by the publisher in return for an honest review.
Publisher: Transworld Books, 359 pages (hardback)
Order The Queen’s Secret from Amazon*
* this is an affiliate link – I will be paid a small percentage of your purchase price if you use this link, which goes towards give-aways and site hosting costs.

Remembering Babylon – David Malouf – 2/10 (DNF)

Modern Masters, Prizes January 31, 2012 Comments: 4

“Strange how unimportant eyebrows can be, as long as there are two of them”

In David Malouf’s IMPAC-winning novel (novelette? 182 pages), a group of children in 1840s Queensland happen across a young man, unkempt and racially white, but exhibiting behaviour they and their community expect of the local Aborigines. The community is changed forever by Gemmy’s arrival.

I don’t understand how this won the IMPAC and was shortlisted for the Booker. It’s So Incredibly Uninteresting. I couldn’t bring myself to care about any of the characters, the setting, the writing, just any of it. Maybe that’s a criterion for book prizes.

Each chapter is from a different character’s point of view – we get Gemmy, Lachlan (the boy who found him), Janet (Lachlan’s jealous cousin), Jock (Janet’s father), the teacher… and none of them is an interesting person by themselves. There are some vague hints of interesting colonial life (dialogue is written in a strange Scotch hybrid sometimes) but it’s not explored. The writing is… meh. It’s not even exhilerating writing.

Urgh. Take it away from me.

Additional info:
This  copy was bought from a charity shop.
Publisher: Vintage Books, 182 pages
Order Remembering Babylon from Amazon if you can bear the tedium*
* this is an affiliate link – I will be paid a small percentage of your purchase price if you use this link, which goes towards giveaways.

Gods of Gotham – Lyndsey Faye – 7/10

Historical Fiction, Review copies, Thriller January 27, 2012 1 Comment

“Hope, I’ve discovered, is a sad nuisance. Hope is a horse with a broken leg.”

In 1845, Timothy Wilde becomes member of the newly minted New York Police force after a fire destroys his home, his employment and his looks. Despairing of ever winning the delightful Miss Underhill’s regard, and seeking to avoid his louche brother Valentine at all times and costs, Timothy tries enforce some law and order while being kind to the impoverished Irish immigrants. When a girl in a blood-drenched lace nightgown crashes into his knees one night in full flight, he finds a purpose to his employment: to avenge a terrible evil.

Tim is a standard tragic protagonist: good-hearted and cursed; nevertheless, he is likeable, realistic and pleasantly articulate. Mercy is a touch twee, always buried in Harper Brothers’ latest or charmingly tucking a strand of hair behind an ear, and I thought a few of her actions towards the end of the book were inconsistent with the persona that had been constructed for her thus far. Valentine rides the line between good and evil marvellously, and the reader isn’t sure right until the end whether he might be the villain.

The revelation of the villain, when it eventually comes, is somewhat anticlimactic, and it is immediately obvious to the reader that he cannot be responsible for one of the deaths. I’m still not happy with the answer of who committed the final crime, nor any motive or means for doing so (maybe I was reading too fast). Nevertheless, the denouement fit my criteria of fitting hints which had been available, without being obvious to me.

Faye’s novel slips into 1840s New York with ease: the rickety buildings full of Irish immigrants, the news-sellers with their cigars and flash language. The writing is too rich at times, stuffed with simile and metaphor, but smooth; the plot is well-paced without racing. Faye strides the historical crime path with confidence and well; this is a most absorbing debut.

Additional info:
This  copy was sent for review by We Love This Book, where a shorter version of this review will appear.
Publisher: Headline, 400 pages
Order The Gods of Gotham from Amazon*
* this is an affiliate link – I will be paid a small percentage of your purchase price if you use this link, which goes towards giveaways.

The Tenderness of Wolves – Stef Penney – 7/10

Audiobooks, Current Affairs, Historical Fiction December 6, 2011 Comments: 5

The Tenderness of Wolves tells the story of the search for the murderer of Laurent Jamais, French trapper in late nineteenth century Canada, one brutal winter. Mrs Ross’ son Francis is suspected of the murder, and she sets out on a most unconventional journey to clear his name.

This was my first full-scale audiobook listening exercise (it took me about 5 months from start to finish because I don’t have much time in the day that can only be used for audiobook listening!) and I very much enjoyed it. It is such a different experience from reading a print book (not least in terms of the patience necessary!) and I will be looking out for more audiobooks now. This recording had two narrators; Sally Armstrong (with a beautiful clear but distinctive Scottish accent) for Mrs Ross’ strand of the narrative and Adam Sims (again, a clear and versatile voice) for various male-perspective strands.

I was particularly impressed by the characterisation of Donald; like Mrs Ross, he was granted considerable rumination and reflection, thinking back on his time with the Company in Canada and about his father. There were definite tinges of Little House on the Prairie in there, as what is fundamentally a simple murder mystery with a bit of pursuit is turned into an adventure story (to anyone who’s read it: did the story of Lina and her escape have any purpose at all except to add some danger?) and the cosy winter scenes are tempered with the tragedy of the Ross’ lost daughter and the missing Seeton girls.

Somehow the ending, which I would have found riveting and fast-paced in print, dragged a little in audio; whether there was too much perspective switching as the scene was revisited by several characters, or whether it was simply a function of the time taken to describe a scene and thus the impossibility of urgency, I’m not sure. Something to keep an eye out for in future I guess.

An enjoyable adventure tale, and well done in audio.

Additional info:
This was borrowed from the library.
Publisher: ISIS Audio Books
Order The Tenderness of Wolves from Amazon*
* this is an affiliate link – I will be paid a small percentage of your purchase price if you use this, which goes towards giveaways.

The White Queen – Philippa Gregory – 8/10

Fluff, Historical Fiction November 5, 2011 Comments: 3

“Edward lives as if there is no tomorrow, Richard as if he wants no tomorrow, and George as though someone should give it to him for free.”

Continuing my reading of Philippa Gregory’s Cousins War series, a set of perspectives of women involved in the War of the Roses, we now follow Elizabeth Woodville, daughter of Jacquetta and nemesis of Margaret, as she weds Edward IV secretly and rises from her humble landed gentry beginnings to be Queen of England. Secure in her marriage she may be, but her husband is not safe on his throne; first from the remnants of Lancastrian forces, and then from the various Yorkist factions. Elizabeth is in and out of sanctuary, and on and off the throne, all her life.

I was hoping this would be the best of the Cousins War series, and I wasn’t disappointed. The Red Queen is all anger and vengeance and scheming, and while I very much admired Elizabeth’s mother Jacquetta, she was too ambitious for me. Elizabeth is an Everywoman, just wanting her husband to come home safe every day. She resents the other women who catch his eye, she bears grudges against the men who brought down her family, she loves her family dearly. I was a little confused by her calm reaction to the news of the missing Princes in the Tower – it didn’t make sense after she had been so passionate about her family earlier in the book. However, judging by the material in The Women of the Cousins’ War, the non-fiction companion to these novels, she did reconcile quickly with Richard III, so maybe she knew more than we do now.

My main struggle with The White Queen, as with the other books in the series, was the seemingly interminable series of battles, although Elizabeth’s less political view is less difficult to take than the others’ – she is worried by the aftermath of each battle. Similarly, having read The Red Queen and found that Margaret Beaufort spent so long at court undermining Elizabeth, it seemed odd that she played such a small part in The White Queen.

I have very much enjoyed this series, particularly as I knew nothing about the War of the Roses beforehand (I had no idea it went on so long!), so the trilogy has been a great introduction, and the writing has been far better quality than I had come to expect of Gregory after The Other Boleyn Girl.

Additional info:
This was borrowed from a friend.
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 409 pages (hardback)
Order The White Queen from Amazon*
* this is an affiliate link – I will be paid a small percentage of your purchase price if you use this, which goes towards giveaways.

The Red Queen – Philippa Gregory – 7/10

Fluff, Historical Fiction October 4, 2011 Comments: 3

“Those who laughed at my visions and doubted my vocation will call me My Lady, The King’s Mother, and I shall sign myself Margaret Regina”

Margaret Beaufort is heiress to the Lancaster house and has the iron will to rule it. Denied her greatest wish of entering an abbey, she is dispatched to a loveless marriage in Wales and undergoes an arduous childbirth aged only 13 and widowed already. Dispatched into another political marriage, she continues to fight the Lancaster cause, although her methods become more and more devious over time.

First off, Margaret is a thoroughly unlikeable person (or is at least portrayed as such), and kudos to Gregory on making a book with a conniving, devious, potentially murderous protagonist so readable. I know that there is another interpretation of her as a feminist hero, fighting tirelessly for the Lancaster cause, but I rather like Gregory’s interpretation – this is not a period of history that I know at all, apart from some post-reading Wikipedia perusals, so I can’t pretend to know whether Gregory is messing with the facts, or whether her interpretation fits everything neatly.

Plot: annoyed little girl wants to go to abbey, political marriage, battle, tragedy, childbirth ouchouchouch, another political marriage, lots of battles, all a bit boring, tragedy, Lady Margaret gets her Devious Hat On, Royal Court, intrigue, Princes in the Tower, deviousdeviousdevious, yay Lancaster. In other words, it’s all go, but the battles seem to go on for ever. I know there were lots, and they’re important, but I can’t keep all the Dukes and Warwicks and Nevilles and Blahdiblah of Yorks apart. Yo, dudes, stop fighting already.

In any case, it’s a good read (although I got a bit tired of Margaret’s constant “God means Lancaster to rule” and pseudo-piety, particularly as I’m pretty sure the whole “thou shalt not murder” thing has been around for Quite Some Time). Again, unlike The Other Boleyn Girl and like The Lady of the Rivers, there’s not so much of the romance and much more of the politics, which is to my liking.

Not a huge fan of the cover – methinks the lady doth wear too much makeup and have the scary crazy eyes.

The Lady of the Rivers is better… I think Gregory has got into her stride more, whereas The Red Queen is the first of the Cousins’ War series. I’ve got The White Queen up next and then The Women of the Cousins’ War which is the non-fiction companion.

Additional info:
This was borrowed from a friend.
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 387 pages (paperback)
Order The Red Queen from Amazon*
* this is an affiliate link – I will be paid a small percentage of your purchase price if you use this link, which goes towards giveaways.

The Lady of the Rivers – Philippa Gregory – 8/10

Fluff, Historical Fiction, Review copies September 21, 2011 Comments: 8

“The English court is at its summer pursuits of hunting, travelling and flirtation.”

A descendant of Melusina, the river goddess, young Jacquetta has already started to experience her magical powers when she meets Joan of Arc and sees her burned for witchcraft. Jacquetta is married at seventeen to the Duke of Bedford, who puts her magic to work. She is soon widowed and marries the Duke’s squire Richard Woodville, returning with him to the English court, where the couple rise in power at the court of Henry VI and his fiery French queen. While the king sleeps deeply and mysteriously and Richard of York threatens the monarchy, Jacquetta and Richard will not have the peaceful country life they wish.

I wrote last Sunday:

I started The Lady of the Rivers by Philippa Gregory… my inner book snob, romantic and good-story-lover are all fighting with one another. Victory report to appear soonish.

Well, this novel set those aspects of my reading personality at odds and they haven’t quite resolved anything.

The writing is better quality than in The Other Boleyn Girl - not only is the history less well-known, but the fear, political intrigue and the turns of fortune are the main features here, not a boorish king’s infidelities, which makes the subject matter more appealing to me. Jacquetta is an educated woman, tactful, respected, ambitious but not hubristically so, so she is a more appealing protagonist than Mary Boleyn.

There are various romantic lines, and I found the contrast in Jacquetta’s two marriages, as well as the relationships of the queen, very interesting – of course we don’t know how much is fact and how much is fiction, but historical evidence tells us that Jacquetta and Richard had a large number of child, so a sweet, large, happy family has been constructed for them by Ms Gregory.

And it’s a cracking story! Married as a girl to the second most powerful man in England, who turns out only to want her for her virginal magic, widowed and wealthy at twenty-two, wedded soon after to her true love, then summoned to court to advise a fiery queen and try to bridge the gap between the French pride and the English customs – Jacquetta had quite a life. Some of the history dragged a little – the constant battles got a little boring, factual though they may be.

All in all, if you can get over the snob factor, this is definitely one to pick up.

Additional info:
This was a review copy sent by the publisher.
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 493 pages (hardback)
Order The Lady of the Rivers from Amazon*
* this is an affiliate link – I will be paid a small percentage of your purchase price if you use this link, which goes towards giveaways.
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