I struggled with this book right from the very start, I think for starters that my view was coloured by my own historical knowledge of Mary Queen of Scots. It could also be the whole rampant Catholic thing, I'm not a believer and therefore struggle with the concept of religious fervour.
Philippa Gregory as a writer does her best and you can't fault her historical knowledge, it's all there from Mary's early days to her disastrous return to Scotland and her imprisonment by her cousin Elizabeth all the way to her final execution.
I can't say I would recommend this book as a "must read" more of an ok if you have a few spare days you want to fritter away then fine go for it.
So what's wrong with it? Well mostly its a history problem if anything, Mary isn't the most likeable character in history and she wouldn't have actually made a good Queen, from historical references she was a weak, vain woman who made some rather large mistakes but Ms Gregory doesn't seem to be able to make up her mind in her writing if she likes Mary at all or not either.
I also found the Earl of Shrewsbury to be a bit of a wimpy character, he slopes about mooning after Mary which seeing as he was a married man and his wife was also Mary's Gaoler made me cringe a bit in embarassment for the poor woman married to him.
Not the best Philippa Gregory Book I've read to be honest.
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