You may have heard that there is a new heir to the English throne. Or maybe not. They have been kind of burying the story in the back pages of the media haven’t they? So, just in case you haven’t seen it or heard it anywhere else, let me share the fact that at 4:24… Read more A Star Is Born!
On May Day, 1464, six-year-old Katherine Woodville, daughter of a duchess who has married a knight of modest means, awakes to find her gorgeous older sister, Elizabeth, in the midst of a secret marriage to King Edward IV. It changes everything-for Kate and for England. Then King Edward dies unexpectedly. Richard III, Duke of Gloucester,… Read more Book Review: The Stolen Crown
Lacey Baldwin Smith (LBS) is one of the “big name” historians, and for good reasons. His research is meticulous and his analysis is often profound. His book on Henry VIII is one of the most cited and significant works on that King. Thus, when he wrote a book about Anne Boleyn I scurried over to… Read more Lacey Baldwin Smith’s book about Anne Boleyn
When I found out that Susan Bordo had a book on Anne Boleyn coming out on the 9th of April I did a snoopy dance of happiness. I am an ardent intellectual admirer of Dr. Bordo. As an student in anthropology I read several of her books about the cultural reflections of the body; they… Read more Dr. Susan Bordo’s new book about Anne Boleyn!
I must confess that I am becoming a hardcore fan of Susan Higginbotham. Since I liked Higginbotham’s book, Her Highness the Traitor, so much I thought I would read some more of her work. Her first novel, The Traitor’s Wife, was on sale on Amazon Kindle so I decided to read it next. It had… Read more The Traitor’s Wife
I decided to review Hilary Mantel’s books Wolf Hall and Bringing Up the Bodies together in order to avoid redundant comments. Eschew redundancy and don’t repeat yourself, I always say! I liked both these books much better than I should have, taking into account the things I didn’t like about them. For one thing I… Read more Wolf Hall & Bringing Up the Bodies
I first became familiar with William “Billy the Butcher” Cumberland when I read the first book in Diana Gabaldon’s series, Outlander. The hero is a Scotsman from the late 18th century, so the topic of the Duke of Cumberland comes up. (I can highly recommend the first three books of Gabaldon’s Outlander series, but it… Read more Billy the Butcher’s
I confess. I have not read either of Hillary Mantel’s Booker Prize-winning novels, Wolf Hall or Bringing Up the Bodies. Mea Culpa. I’ve heard that they are excellent (and I am sure that they are), but I freely admit that I am afraid I will not enjoy them because I am not crazy for the… Read more I am not fond of Thomas Cromwell
One of the most notorious and maligned figures of the Tudor Court was George Boleyn’s wife, Lady Jane Rochford. She has been decried through the ages as a horrible, spiteful bitch who got her husband and sister-in-law deliberately murdered by telling Thomas Cromwell lies about George and Anne Boleyn’s supposedly incestuous relationship. Cromwell is often… Read more The Rochford Files
I am always a bit tentative when I read a book by an author I have never read before. I am such a raging bibliophile that I get easily bored and/or frustrated with writing that doesn’t enthrall me like I want to be enthralled. This wariness is multiplied exponentially when it is a book of… Read more An Incredibly Good Historical Read