February 1, 2010
I reverted to last year's reading schedule -- a book a day -- when I read Karen Harper's latest novel, The Queen's Governess. I sat down and did not get up again until I had finished it. Needless to say, it is a page-turner, a fascinating summation of the intriguing life and times of Elizabeth I, from Henry VIII's pursuit of Anne Boleyn and his divorce of Catherine of Aragon, through the death of Edward VI and Elizabeth's coronation.
The novel is told from the point of view of Katherine Champernowne Ashley, who as a young girl catches the attention of Cromwell, and is brought to court by him to serve in his army of information-gatherers. She eventually becomes the devoted and brave governess, protector, and champion of Elizabeth, tangling with Cromwell and Thomas Seymour (among others) and dodging the worst tortures of The Tower in keeping the promise that she made to Anne Boleyn that Elizabeth would be kept safe. The character of Kat Ashley is historically accurate and Harper conducted ample research (as usual) to support her vivid and engaging novel. This is her second novel set in Elizabeth's times, her ninth book with Kat (the others are all mysteries) and I've liked what I've read so much that I intend on reading them all.
The Queen's Governess is a must-read for any Tudor aficionado (and judging by the popularity of anything tudor, there are millions of us out there) and will increase enjoyment of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall (which won The Booker Prize last year) and Alison Weir's The Lady in the Tower (from the excerpts I've read, the writing in this book is quite dull but the content is thoroughly researched and Weir presents new details about Anne Boleyn's life and death). I also recommend the Shardlake mysteries of C.J. Sansom, set during the reign of Henry VIII. Sansom's mysteries are my favorite in the Tudor fiction category for their great emotional as well as intellectual depth, but I grant Harper high marks for how thoroughly engaging and wholly informative her novels are to read.
The Tudors provide endless characters, plots, subterfuges, machinations, double-crosses, sex, as well as legitimate and illegitimate progeny, more than enough to provide fodder for many more books by Sansom and Harper. I look forward to reading them all.
Per FTC rules, the book reviewed here was supplied by the publisher.
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| Christmas Fit for a Queen |
December 21, 2009
The Queene's Christmas by Karen Harper, set during the early reign of Queen Elizabeth, is the perfect follow-up to the wonderful mystery novels of C.J. Sansom (set during the reign of her father, Henry VIII), or to the thickly-paged, Booker Prize-winning Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (ditto). If you are not constrained by chronology, jump right into the Harper mysteries; they are a good introduction to the age of Elizabeth, and of the Tudors. The Queene's Christmas is clever, confounding (in the best of ways -- you really won't know who did it until the end but then it will make sense), and great fun.
This delightful mystery provided brain food as well, in the form of historically-accurate details of everyday life in Elizabeth's court, as well as of the customs, social issues, and political struggles in the time of the Tudors. There are mouth-watering (and some stomach-turning) details as to food eaten during Christmastime, and to the customs of celebrating the twelve days of Christmas, including mummery, the Yule log, the hanging of greenery, and the enticement of the mistletoe. There is also interesting background as to the saints' days associated with the twelve days of Christmas and to the political and religious skirmishing and power-brokering over celebrating Christmas at all, and in what way. The puritans of Elizabethan England would have been appalled by the Christmas customs of today, but Elizabeth herself might have had a jolly good time.
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