Claire | August 16, 2010
A few weeks ago, I did a post about recent and upcoming historical fiction books and today I’m going to focus on non-fiction history books and biographies of historical characters within the Tudor and Elizabethan periods:-
Margaret Beaufort: The Mother of the Tudor Dynasty by Elizabeth Norton - Due to be released in the UK [...]
Claire | August 2, 2010
Having previously read and loved Jeane Westin’s “The Virgin’s Daughters: In the Court of Elizabeth I”, I was really excited when I found out that Jeane was writing an historical novel based on the relationship between Elizabeth I and her childhood friend and favourite Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester. Like many other people, Elizabeth [...]
Claire | January 7, 2010
I didn’t realise that I had been missing out on some great works of historical fiction until I read an advance copy Karen Harper’s latest book which is published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons on 21st January. Now, I’m going to be buying her other Tudor books: “The Last Boleyn” and “The Queen Elizabeth I Mystery [...]
Claire | January 6, 2010
One of the very first Anne Boleyn novels I read was Robin Maxwell’s “The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn”, a book I loved because I so wanted to believe that Elizabeth had been able to learn the true story of her mother’s life, through her own words. I was captivated by that novel and this [...]
Claire | January 6, 2010
Anne Boleyn Files and Elizabeth Files visitor Kelly Gartland was kind enough to write this review after she had “The Lady Elizabeth” for Christmas. I haven’t read it yet but it’s on my list. If you have read it then please feel free to leave your comments below, I’d love to know what you think.
“The [...]
Claire | December 9, 2009
“The Sisters Who Would Be Queen: The Tragedy of Katherine, Mary and Lady Jane Grey” is a non-fiction account of the stories of these three sisters, the times they lived in and the monarchs who reigned in their lifetimes. I was desperate to read this after reading Jeane Westin’s historical novel, “The Virgin’s Daughters”, and [...]
Claire | October 29, 2009
Author Jeane Westin is a regular visitor to The Elizabeth Files and wrote a wonderful guest article - “Did They or Didn’t They? Elizabeth I and Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester” - which got us all commenting our thoughts on Elizabeth’s virginity and her relationship with Dudley.
After chatting to Jeane and reading her article I [...]
Claire | October 12, 2009
Isn’t it a wonderful thing when a novel actually transports you to another place and time? Well, this historical novel does just that and is just the thing to read this autumn (fall) with a mug of hot chocolate or a nice glass of wine.
“Virgin and the Crab: Sketches, Fables and Mysteries from the Early [...]
Claire | July 10, 2009
As many of you know, I spend my days reading biographies, historical texts and researching Tudor history, so it was actually quite refreshing to get lost in a fictional novel for a change and this Philippa Gregory one did not disappoint.
In my opinion there are three vital elements of a top quality historical novel:-
It’s “unputdownable” [...]
