The Queen’s Pawn by Christy English
Posted By Claire on August 20, 2010
“The Queen’s Pawn” is Christy English’s debut novel and is a delight to read. Author Jeane Westin described it as a “jewel of a novel” and I have to agree. It was wonderful and I was disappointed when I finished it, it had been wonderful company for a few days.
The Queen’s Pawn tells the story of two wonderful medieval women - Eleanor of Aquitaine and Princess Alais of France - and it is told through their eyes, with each woman having a voice in the novel. The novel opens with Alais finding out that her father. King Louis VII of France, is sending her to England to marry the son of the woman who broke his heart, his ex-wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, the present wife of Henry II of England. Alais is understandably worried about going to the court of the woman who she has always though of as a “devil”, but she knows she has to do her duty to her father and France, and play her part as a pawn on the chessboard of Europe.
When Alais arrives in England, she meets Eleanor and falls under her spell, coming to love her as a mother. Although Alais is simply a pawn, a tool that Eleanor can use to further her son Richard’s ambitions, Eleanor comes to love this innocent girl and takes her under her wing. The two women form a deep friendship, a real bond of love, but this is threatened when Alais feels betrayed by Richard and by the woman she has come to look on as a mother. Eleanor has taught Alais well and Alais uses her new found power to punish those who’ve hurt her and to make her own way in the world. From friends to bitter rivals, can these women ever be friends again?
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Historian and author Elizabeth Norton’s biography of Catherine Parr was published by Amberley Publishing earlier this year and, like her other books, it is meticulously researched and a great read. I had recently read Linda Porter’s book on Catherine Parr but although Porter’s and Norton’s books obviously overlapped (how could they not?), each author had her own take on Catherine and brought something new to the table.


