The Cavalier Queen

Loved this book! I was completely enthralled by the characterisations and the plot.  Obviously as it is a novel based on real people and historical events, if you know your history of the Englsh Monarchy then you already know how it ends but somehow because of the fantastic writing weaving a perfectly believable lifelong lovestory into what is already there I found myself hoping for different outcomes, even though logically I already knew what I hoped for was already impossible by dint of time.

For me the measure of how much I enjoy a book is how much of my sleep am I prepared to forego (I was a sloth in a previous incarnation) in order to read it and with book I can genuinely say, I lost significant z's.

Whilst much is made of King Charles I and his beheading the story of his French Princess Bride is glossed over in history lessons, all I remember being taught about Henriette Marie of France was that she tried to turn England back to Catholicism and that she was the reason in the end that Charles ended up sans noggin.

But perhaps this was not so, perhaps in the mists of time and he chroniclers of the time just painted that picture for convenience... After all histories are not written by the dead, are they? 

Anyway, I liked the version of Henriette Marie I was introduced to in this story, beautiful, full of life and determination and with a backbone maybe not of steel, maybe willow, bending and swaying with circumstance, bending but never breaking and always returning upright when the storm has passed. This woman was more than a Queen she was a builder, a creator, a woman of vision.

Fiona Mountain is a wonderful writer, her descriptive style draws you in and really paints a picture that I was seeing in my mind as I read. 

The Queen of Subtleties

I bought this book on a whim when I was browsing my way through Amazon, I love anything about Tudor history, not entirely sure why, I mean it's not as if the story changes is it?  We all know what happened!  But I hadn't read anything by this author but I thought go for it.

I have been really surprised by how much I enjoyed this story, it follows the very familiar story of Anne Boleyn and her relationship with Henry but it's a dual story as it also follows that of a fictional character, Lucy Cornwallis, a talented subtleties maker.   

I bet you are wondering what a subtlety is... I know I was.  A subtlety was almost a sculpture made of sugar, these days I imagine that we would call these "deserts", marchpane,  sugared fruits, cake and spun sugar was used to create fantastical decorative centerpieces that were very popular in Court and fine houses. 

I really liked the jumping style of the book from Anne's story to Lucy's and back again and how that their lives cross paths and mesh. 

Definitely worth a read.

Virgin Earth - Philippa Gregory

This book is part of a two parter really, even though the story kind of stands on its own, it is the follow up to Earthly Joys. Where the first book follows the John Tradescant the Older in his career as gardener to the King, this book follows his son who inherits his father collection of plants and also his love and skill with the.  John however gets to travel to America in search of new plants where he meets native Indians and falls in love with their lifestyle. 

 As usual Philippa Gregory writes with style and grace, and I found myself falling into the story and living the adventure.

Book Review: Dreaming The Eagle

I've always been fascinated by strong female characters, specially historical ones, obviously all we can ever do is look back, extrapolate from whatever historical evidence is available and conjure up a story from that, unfortunately time travel isn't an option... how cool it would be if it was!  In modern times women's role in society is back up on the rise after several centuries of being denied a role, being held back by the male dominated elite... it's almost hard to believe that once upon a time women were warriors, seers, religious leaders and played important parts in the history of humankind. 

Boudica or Boadicea as she is often known as is a character that has been of great interest to me, so Manda Scott's series of books on Boudica were a definite "must read" for me and I wasn't disappointed. Although this is historical fiction, it is believable historical fiction.  

Manda Scott managed to bring to life a largely unknown portion of English history, there is very little written evidence from this time, just at the point that England is invaded by the Romans and the turning point in history from the British Isles, if the Romans hadn't come how different a country could this have been. Boudica is the Queen of the Iceni, one of the many tribes that occupied England and leads a revolt against the Romans. 

This book is one of a series and I would highly recommend the whole series. If you like series style stories in the vein of "Clan of the Cave Bear" or "Lord of the Rings" then this series will have you enthralled. 

 

It's the Little Things

Every now and again I am surprised by the things that make me smile, even when I am having a crappy time of it a little ray of light pops up and makes me think "you know things aren't always so bad".  In this case happiness is a spotty red toilet seat.

I recently broke the loo seat in our bathroom, no i wasnt tap dancing on it, I sat on it in the middle of the night and ooops the seat hinge just snapped.  I can't tell you the hilarity this caused, the other half was highly amused. But serendipity struck, we were going to replace the loo seat with an ordinary white one but as we wandered around Wilkinsons we spotted this wild red toilet seat with white spots, very much in the style of Minnie Mouse, although I won't be wearing Minnie Mouse ears to use it, I am however tempted by the hair bow.

We were however forced to buy a matching mat, toilet roll holder and toothbrush holder.... well, it would have been rude not to really! 

So in the new year there has got to be a revamp of the bathroom, I am thnking white walls (they are blue currently), with white and red lino, hopefully something with really small tiled squares and a new blind in red and white... we will see.

In the meantime everytime I open the door to the smallest room in the house a spotty toilet seat makes me smile... long may that continue.

Book Review - The Other Queen

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.

Book Review - Daughters of Fire

Barbara Erskine is another favourite author of mine, I have enjoyed all of her books that I've read to date,  I like the way she managed to meld the modern day in with her historical fiction, time slipping between the two time periods.

In Daughters of Fire, Ms Erskine tells the story of two women, Cartimandua the young woman destined to lead her tribe, the Brigantes in Britain at the time of the Roman invasion of the islands and Viv Lloyd Rees who in the modern day is studying the history of Cartimandua and the Brigantes.

I did like the twists the story took and also the almost magical element that Ms Erskine injects with Viv having more and more detailed visions of Cartimandua and her life.   The premises melds the two worlds almost into one and it does feel like Viv is taking part in Cartimandua's life and world.

I did find myself taking sides with both Viv and Cartimandua, they're characters are so strong and vivid I couldn't seem to help myself but it did leave me feeling a loathing with some of the people who were trying to cause problems for them.

All in all it was a great book, thoroughly enjoyable and well worth a read.  It's definitely not Tolstoi but if you're like me and find him quite hard work to read then it's a bonus!