Tudor Book Reviews

Posted By Claire on November 12, 2011

I’ve been going through a phase of reading historical mysteries and it’s been great fun because I’ve been exposed to new authors and a whole new genre.

“Miss Dimple Disappears” by Mignon F. Ballard is set in Georgia in 1942, the Second World War so four hundred years away from my usual reading matter! In this mystery, Elderberry School caretaker Wilson “Christmas” Malone is found dead in the broom closet and teacher Miss Dimple disappears, leaving a note saying that she’s gone to look after her sister who’s been taken ill. The only thing is, nobody knew she had a sister!

The community is baffled and young teacher Charlie Carr and her best friend Annie decide to try and get to the bottom of Christmas’s death and Miss Dimple’s disappearance. Charlie just knows that Miss Dimple would never leave her class, her colleagues and her community like that. Can Charlie solve the case and find Miss Dimple? Is there evil lurking in the usually friendly town? What about Willie Elrod’s claim that Miss Dimple was kidnapped by aliens or spies? What is going on and just how does Charlie feel about her beau, Hugh, who has just signed up?

I don’t want to give any more details as I don’t want to spoil the book

This book really was a joy to read, just what my rather fried brain needed at the end of a day! I’d describe it as a good old fashioned murder mystery, you know, like the good old days before gruesome forensic science details became the norm. Calling it a murder mystery is not completely accurate as the reader is also given details of what small town America was like during the war, during rationing, and the daily lives and problems of the characters form a major part of the story. Nostalgia, charm, humour, mystery, murder, love, heartbreak and suspense – perfect ingredients. I’m just thankful that the next Miss Dimple book comes out this month!

Coming soon: Miss Dimple Rallies to the Cause – out 22nd November 2011.

Miss Dimple Disappears by Mignon F. Ballard
Format : Paperback
Pages: 272
Publisher: Minotaur Books (September 2011)
ISBN-10: 0312626827
ISBN-13: 978-0312626822
Availability: Click here to order from Amazon.com or click here to order from Amazon UK.

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Category: 20th Century History, Crime/Thriller
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Posted By Claire on November 11, 2011

I have just discovered the delights of the Sister Fidelma mystery series by Peter Tremayne and I am now completely hooked! I have only read the two most recent novels, The Dove of Death and The Chalice of Blood, but I’m definitely going to be ordered books from earlier in the series now as these two were excellent.

I love history and I love murder mysteries so these were just up my alley, even though they’re set in Ancient Ireland, in the 7th century, rather than Tudor England. The main character, Sister Fidelma of Cashel, is a Celtic religieuse and ‘dalaigh’, or laywer, who fights for justice by solving murders and mysteries, along with her sidekick, husband Brother Eadulf. She is not just a religieuse and lawyer, she is also sister of the King of Muman.

In “The Dove of Death”, Sister Fidelma’s ship, The Barnacle Goose” is attacked by pirates just off the Breton coast. The attack is brutal, with two passengers, including Fidelma’s cousin, being killed by the disguised pirate leader. Fidelma and Eadulf manage to escape and Fidelma decides that she must seek justice for her dead cousin and find out the identity of the killer who is wreaking havoc in the local waters and is using a symbol associated with Lord Canao and his family. Can she stop these brutal sea-raiders and bring peace back to these shores? Well, of course she can but how? Read it and find out!

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Category: Crime/Thriller, Fiction
Tags: Ancient Ireland, mystery, Peter Tremayne, Sister Fidelma

Posted By Claire on October 21, 2011

This book, described as a Medieval noir, is Jeri Westerson’s latest mystery novel featuring her medieval detective, Crispin Guest. It is one of a series featuring Guest and follows on from “Veil of Lies” and “Serpent in the Thorns”.

When I saw that it was part of a series I was worried that I hadn’t read the previous books but it is, in fact, a stand-alone novel and does not refer to earlier crimes or mysteries or contain any spoilers, as far as I can tell.

It is the year 1384 and ‘tracker’ Crispin Guest, a former knight and nobleman who has fallen on hard times, is hired by Jacob of Provençal, a Jewish physician, to track down some stolen parchments. But this is not the only crime on Guest’s mind as he stumbles on the body of a young boy and finds out that a serial killer is on the loose in London. Are the two crimes linked? Can Guest and his servant Jack Tucker stop this evil in its tracks? Find out in “The Demon’s Parchment”!

This book was a joy to read. I was hooked from the very first page and thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish. I would liken it in style to C J Sansom’s Shardlake series. Like Sansom, Westerson cleverly brings the squalor of London to life, the stark difference between life in the royal palace and life in the city itself: the daily life of the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’. Guest may be very different to Matthew Shardlake, in that he spends rather a lot of time drunk in his local tavern, but the reader cannot help but be drawn to this man whose honour and pride has led to his fall from grace and who is set on ridding the streets of London from the evil preying on the young boys, boys whose lives are considered as unimportant. Who is responsible for these deaths? Is it a person or a monster conjured by Jewish ‘magic’? Guest must find out.

It is a thrilling read with lots of twists and turns and I was completely satisfied with its ending. I was even more satisfied when I read the afterword in which Westerson explains that the novel is based on a true crime and real characters! I am now desperate to read “Troubled Bones”, the next Crispin Guest novel which has just come out in hardback. This series is going to be filling the void in my life which I have felt since finishing Sansom’s “Heartstone”! If you love the Shardlake series then you will love this series too. I highly recommend it.

Publisher’s Blurb

“Jeri Westerson returns with her one-of-a-kind detective Crsipin Guest to solve another explosive mystery in “The Demon’s Parchment”. Convicted of treason in the past, Guest was stripped of his title, his land, his money and his friends. He has become known as the “Tracker”, a man who can find anything or can solve any puzzle – with the help of his apprentice, Jack Tucker, an orphaned street urchin with a thief’s touch – provided he is duly compensated. But this time, even Crispin is wary of taking on his most recent client. Jacob of Provençal is a Jewish physician at the King’s court, even though all Jews were expelled from England nearly a century before. Jacob wants Crispin to find stolen parchments that might be behind the recent, ongoing, gruesome murders of young boys, parchments that someone might have used to bring forth a demon which now stalks the streets and alleys of London.

Rich in the feel and flavor of the period, “The Demon’s Parchment” presents a complex mystery intertwined with historical facts.”

Details

Format : Paperback
Pages: 320
Publisher: Minotaur Books (September 27, 2011)
ISBN-10: 0312609264
ISBN-13: 978-0312609269
Availability: Click here to order from Amazon.com or click here to order from Amazon UK.

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Category: Crime/Thriller, Fiction
Tags: Crispin Guest, Jeri Westerson, medieval, mystery

Posted By Claire on October 13, 2011

I’ve been holding off writing a review of Alison Weir’s new book, “Mary Boleyn: The Great and Infamous Whore” or “Mary Boleyn: The Mistress of Kings”, because I didn’t want to come across as “bashing” someone who is a respected author and historian, and a lady I really like on a personal level. However, I’ve had so many emails regarding my thoughts on this book that I need to put my thoughts in one place and review this book properly. I hope you find my review informative and balanced.

Firstly, I want to repeat what Eric Ives said to me recently: “What we know about Mary Boleyn can be written on a postcard with rooms to spare” and he is right. Any book about Mary Boleyn is going to be short on facts and high on supposition and theories because we know so little about her, and that’s what we have with this biography, lots of ideas but little that is concrete.

OK, so let’s get on with my thoughts on this book. I have divided them into the good and the bad, the positives and negatives:-

The Good

• Alison Weir provides a good biography of William Carey, Mary Boleyn’s first husband – Some authors have made the mistake of seeing Carey as a nobody when he was in fact the King’s cousin, a member of the Privy Chamber, an Esquire of the Body and a royal favourite. As Weir points out, “William Carey was fortunate enough to be one of this select group of young men who enjoyed a privileged degree of daily access to – and intimacy with – the King, and therefore great influence and the ability to exercise lucrative patronage.”
• Weir provides a good biography of Thomas Boleyn, recording his rise in favour and giving examples of the titles, offices and grants he was awarded in his career.
• Alison Weir also gives an interesting biography of William Stafford, Mary Boleyn’s second husband and the man she married in secret.
• Interesting thoughts (p80 -87) on what happened to Mary Boleyn when Mary Tudor returned to England – Weir suggests that the French tradition that Anne Boleyn spent some time in Brie could actually be based on Mary Boleyn being sent to live with relatives there after the scandal of her affair with Francis I. Anything is possible really as we have no hard evidence of Mary’s movements at this time. Weir also puts forward the idea that Mary Boleyn and William Stafford lived in Calais and that that explains her absence in the contemporary records.

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Category: Alison Weir, Mary Boleyn, Mistresses, Non-fiction, The Tudors
Tags: Alison Weir, Mary Boleyn

Posted By Claire on September 30, 2011

Elizabeth Norton’s latest offering is “England’s Queens: The Biography” which is described as “Her story, not his, the English monarchy through the private and public lives of the queens of England”. And that’s exactly what it is, a look at the history of England through the lives of its queen consorts and queens, from Boudica and Cartimandua to our present queen, Queen Elizabeth II.

We know about the monarchs of England and even about some of their wives, seemingly scandalous consorts like Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Elizabeth Woodville and Isabella of France, but what about Emma of Normandy, Matilda of Boulogne and Edith of Mercia? Have you heard of them? That’s what I loved about this book, it introduced me to a whole host of women who are deserving of my admiration, women who were more than submissive wives, women who acted as regents or who had real influence over their husbands and an impact on the country. Wow!

“England’s Queens” is divided up into 11 main sections:-

1. The Early and Mythical Queens
2. The Anglo-Saxon Queens
3. The Norman Queens
4. The Plantagenet Queens
5. The Lancastrian Queens
6. The Yorkist Queens
7. The Six Wives of Henry VIII
8. Tudor Queen Regnants
9. The House of Stuart
10. The Hanoverian Queens
11. From the House of Hanover to the House of Windsor

And in these sections around 80 (I think I counted 81) women are examined, and in detail too. The book has over 350 pages so none of these women are skipped over. What Norton writes on these women is enough to give you a good overview of their life, importance and reign, and a hunger to find out more. Just the right amount of information. I found it a truly enlightening read given that I have not studied every period of English history and there are significant gaps in my knowledge.

Also included in the book are sections of full colour illustrations, genealogical tables and notes and bibliography. The Notes and Bibliography section is of particular interest to history lovers and students as it contains a list of sources for each section and also recommended reading. I’ve already looked up books on Emma of Normandy because, for some reason, she has piqued my interest, as has Eleanor of Castile, whose loving husband, Edward I, erected twelve “Eleanor Crosses” in a line down Eastern England in memory of her. That’s love for you!

So, who is this book for?

Well, it makes a great reference book, a general history book, to have on your bookshelf and it’s a wonderful read for anyone interested in women’s history or in broadening their knowledge of English history as a whole. It’s definitely a book to go back to and I know that the Bibliography will be invaluable to me over the years as I thirst for more knowledge! Elizabeth Norton has done a great job with something that must have been an immense project. When whole books could be written about many of these women individually, it is a tricky job to condense their lives into one book without missing vital information, but Norton has given very fair overviews, spot on.

Details

Format: Harcover
Publisher: Amberley Publishing; 1st edition (UK 30 Jun 2011)
ISBN-10: 1848681933
ISBN-13: 978-1848681934
Available from Amazon.com – click here – or Amazon UK – click here

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Category: Elizabeth Norton, General History, Non-fiction
Tags: England's Queens, Queen Consorts, Queens

Posted By Claire on September 14, 2011

This review is of the UK paperback two volume series “The Tudors” by G J Meyer which is split into two books: Henry VII to Henry VIII and Lady Jane Grey to Elizabeth I.

The books are described by the publisher, Amberley, as “the complete story of England’s most notorious dynasty” and Meyer does do a wonderful job at condensing the reigns of Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Lady Jane Grey, Mary I and Elizabeth I into two paperbacks. When you think that huge books have been written on each of these monarchs then it really is a skill to condense the information down to 2 books.

Obviously, Meyer cannot go into as much detail as standard biographies but these books would be fantastic for a student embarking on a course in Tudor history or for someone who wants an overview on the period. Meyer gives the key information in a highly readable style and I thoroughly enjoyed reading these two books.

I did find the occasional error, for example he describes Richard III’s emblem being the blue boar when in fact Richard’s was the white boar and the blue boar belonged to the Earl of Oxford, but this did not detract from the overall accuracy and detail of these books. I may not agree with Meyer on some things, e.g. his view on Elizabeth I’s reign being one of survival and nothing else, but I applaud him for taking on such an immense task and coming up with an educational, and also entertaining, read.

Would I recommend this book to academics or those specialising in a particular Tudor monarch? Probably not, they’re more of an overview and I would recommend individual biographies instead, but these books are a perfect taster, the ideal back ground read on the Tudor period.

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Category: Elizabeth I, Henry VIII, Mary I, Non-fiction, The Tudors
Tags: The Tudors

Posted By Claire on September 2, 2011

The following review of these two Elizabeth I themed books, one factual and one fiction, is written by our regular reviewer, Niki A. Incorvia, M.A. Thank you, Niki!

Elizabeth’s Women: Friends, Rivals, and Foes Who Shaped the Virgin Queen by Tracy Borman, and Legacy: The Acclaimed Novel of Elizabeth, England’s Most Passionate Queen — and the Three Men Who Loved Her by Susan Kay

After reading numerous books which merely skimmed over Elizabeth’s life, I resolved myself to read biographies solely focusing on her childhood and reign as queen of England. I discovered the novels, Elizabeth’s Women: Friends, Rivals, and Foes Who Shaped the Virgin Queen by Tracy Borman and Legacy: The Acclaimed Novel of Elizabeth, England’s Most Passionate Queen — and the Three Men Who Loved Her by Susan Kay, to be reliable depictions of what I envisioned the Virgin Queen to be like. Kay’s book is a self-described novel, not entirely based on fact, while Borman’s book is classified as “non-fiction.”

Both novels were consistent in Elizabeth’s childhood, depicting her formative years as “rocky” with her father and the subsequent series of step-mothers she went through during the course of her father’s reign. Some, like Jane Seymour, according to Borman, preferred her half-sister Mary over Elizabeth, while others, such as Katherine Howard, Elizabeth’s own mother’s first cousin, favored Elizabeth over Mary. One indisputable fact presented in these two novels is that Elizabeth’s life was tumultuous after the death of her father in 1547 and during the events leading to her accession to the English throne.

A biography of Elizabeth I could not be written without the mention of her great rival, Mary Queen of Scots. Both books include detailed accounts of Elizabeth’s ongoing rivalry with the Scottish queen and her eventual execution. The specifics of Mary’s execution were consistent in both novels and did not stray from the conventional sequence of events that are re-told by most historians of the Tudor era.

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Category: Elizabeth I, Fiction, Non-fiction
Tags: Elizabeth I, Susan Kay, Tracy Borman

Posted By Claire on August 9, 2011

As someone who has been researching Anne Boleyn full-time for the past two years I’m always apprehensive about reading fictional portrayals of Anne and whether the author’s Anne will fit in with the Anne I’ve come to know from the primary sources. Fortunately, novelist Sandra Byrd made it her mission to tell Anne’s real story and even went as far as consulting an historical researcher, a lady I know well (Lauren Mackay), to make sure that her book was as historically accurate as possible. This attention to detail really showed.

“To Die For” is, as the subtitle suggests, a novel about Henry VIII’s second wife, Anne Boleyn, but it is told through the eyes of Anne’s childhood friend, Meg Wyatt. It is a book of two stories: Anne’s rise to Queen, and subsequent downfall, and Meg’s story. Meg struggles with her faith and her love for a man who seems out of reach and this is paralleled with Anne’s story as she seeks to further the reformist cause and falls in love with the King, a man who is already married and a man who has to take extraordinary steps to be with his love. We all know how Anne’s story ends but does Meg have a happy ending? Well, I won’t tell you as it would spoil the story.

I highly recommend this novel. I am hard to please when it comes to Anne Boleyn, as she is a huge part of my daily life, but Sandra did an amazing job of bringing her to life and not once did I want to throw the book out of the window or bang my head on my desk!

The reader can’t help but be drawn in by her story when her st0ry is told by Meg, somebody who knows Anne inside out and who knows the ins and outs of the Tudor court and how fickle it can be. The Anne of the novel is a woman who is in love with the King, an evangelical who uses her position to reform the Church and a woman who trusted her husband implicitly. As Anne waits to die she talks to Meg of how people are saying that “justice is served” because she “forced Henry to set aside Katherine” but that she “truly believed” Henry, she believed him when he told her “that his marriage to Katherine had been dead for years… his marriage had been invalid, cursed, because of Arthur. That God had told him he must marry anew and get him a son for the realm. ” Anne goes on to say, “I trusted him and carried forth with honest intent certain in the knowledge that Henry would not lie to me.” Although many say that Anne Boleyn did not love Henry VIII and that she was simply an ambitious and manipulative woman who would do anything for power, these words ring true to me. I believe that Anne truly loved Henry and believed in his cause and the religious argument against his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. I think that Sandra Byrd explains Anne and her motives so well. Anne is real, she is tangible and her character makes sense. Congratulations, Sandra.

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Category: Anne Boleyn, Fiction, Henry VIII
Tags: Anne Boleyn, Meg Wyatt, Tudor

Posted By Claire on June 29, 2011

Fancy a fun read this summer? Need a break from heavy history books? Well, here’s the perfect book for you and I guarantee that it will have you rolling around on the floor laughing, or perhaps chuckling quietly under your breath!

When you find yourself laughing at the author’s note at the beginning, you know that the book is going to be a fun read. It is in the author’s note that Karen Clark writes of how she learned the “explosive secrets”  which she shares in her novel, the revelation of “the Greatest Love Story Ever Told”, or rather not told until now – the passionate (very passionate!) romance between the She-Wolf, Margaret of Anjou, and the man who fathered her son, Edward Prince of Wales, a man who has never before been linked to Margaret in this way… Well, I’m not going to tell you, am I? But this is shocking news!

If you haven’t guessed already, this novel is a spoof, a send-up of the Wars of the Roses, and a delightful “mickey take” of authors who have taken great delight in making Margaret of Anjou a bit of a slut whose “insatiable lusts… were not satisfied by any of the Beauforts, the Duke of Suffolk or the Earl of Wiltshire, not to mention Pierre de Breze and a whole lot of others”. It is a delight to read, and, for those of you who like the raunchy bits in novels, Karen’s novel now has 25% more sex! Yes, lots of sex scenes, along with secret lovers hiding behind tapestries and spies hiding in suits of armour!

Highlights for me included:-

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Category: Fiction
Tags: comedy, Margaret of Anjou, spoof, Wars of the Roses

Posted By Claire on June 23, 2011

Anne Clinard Barnhill

Regular Anne Boleyn Files visitor, Anne Clinard Barnhill, has just sent me the synopsis for her new book “At the Mercy of the Queen: A Novel of Anne Boleyn” which is due to be released in January 2012 by St Martins Press. Here is Anne’s synopsis

“A sweeping tale of sexual seduction and intrigue at the court of Henry VIII, At the Mercy of the Queen is a rich and dramatic debut historical novel about Madge Shelton, cousin and lady-in-waiting to Anne Boleyn.

At the innocent age of fifteen, Lady Margaret Shelton arrives at the court of Henry VIII and quickly becomes the confidante of her cousin, Queen Anne Boleyn. But she soon finds herself drawn into the perilous web of Anne’s ambition.

Desperate to hold onto the king’s waning affection, Anne schemes to have him take her guileless young cousin as mistress, ensuring her husband’s new paramour will owe her loyalty to the queen. But Margaret has fallen deeply in love with a handsome young courtier. She is faced with a terrible dilemma: give herself to the king and betray the love of her life or refuse to become his mistress and jeopardize the life of the her cousin, Queen Anne.”

It sounds like it’s going to be a great read and I’m interested to see how Anne will portray Anne Boleyn in this novel.

By the way, Anne won our Anne Boleyn Files anniversary competition with her article “Anne Boleyn – Rockin’ Renaissance” which you can read at http://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/anne/impact-on-history/anne-boleyn-rockin-the-renaissance/ She’s a wonderful writer so I’m sure her book is going to be wonderful.

Availability

At the Mercy of the Queen is due for release on 3rd January 2012 but can be pre-ordered now from Amazon.com – click here.
Paperback: 448 pages
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin (January 3, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0312662130
ISBN-13: 978-0312662134

You can find out more about Anne Clinard Barnhill at her website – http://www.anneclinardbarnhill.com/

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Category: Anne Boleyn, Fiction
Tags: Anne Boleyn