SYNOPSIS
A new novel of sixteent-century royalty from the author of A Question of Guilt
Her name was Mary Tudor. First of the Tudor queens, she has gone down in history as Bloody Mary. But does she deserve her vicious reputation?
She was the daughter of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon, and half-sister to Edward VI and Elizabeth I. Mary Tudor's life began as the sweetly innocent, pampered princess of Wales-until the age of eleven when the father she adored cast aside the mother she worshipped and declared Mary a bastard. Only after years of exile did Mary finally rise to the throne alongside the man who, aside from her father, was her greatest love-and her greatest betrayer.
Told by Mary herself and the people around her, this grand-scale novel takes us back to the glittering court of sixteenth-century England, and tells the tragic story of a fascinating, largely misunderstood woman who withstood the treachery and passion around her only to become one of England's most vilified queens.
MY VIEW
The beginning of this was rather different in that a group of schoolgirls in the present time conjure up the spirit of Mary Tudor. However, it doesn't detract and just launches the story.
The story does move along fast in places perhaps two fast and skips Mary's life by about 6 years, we are told of the major things that happened in Marys life like her fathers marriage to Anne Boleyn and also to Jane Seymour however, things are just zipoping from one thing to the other too quickly Henry dies, his son is on the throne I think she may have missed out the Sixth wife which seems a little odd as she was a major part of Henry's story.
Now that said if you can overlook these slight niggles (or that may just be me) it is a good read, certainly nowhere near as dire as Susannah Dunn's offerings, those with superior knowledge of the Tudor era may find this book a little irritating as there are some historical inaccuracies but, its not too bad, I don't usually rate books but, I'd say this is about a 3.5/5.
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1 comment:
I recently received this book from Paperback Swap and plan on reading it later this year. I'd like to read something that doesn't present Mary as awful person.
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