Just Finished Reading: The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory (FP: 2011)

England, 1568. After a coup in the Scottish court Queen Mary Stewart escapes to England and throws herself at the mercy of her cousin Queen Elizabeth asking for sanctuary and an army to help her restore the Scottish throne to its rightful occupant. But Elizabeth has a problem. Mary is young, beautiful, fertile and a Catholic. She’s also uncontestably in line for the throne of England (and France) in Elizabeth dies or produces no male heirs. Elizabeth meanwhile is aging, approaching the end of her fertile years, unmarried and possibly unmarriageable. Protestant England could die with Elizabeth and Catholic England return forever under Mary and, no doubt, her predicted brood of Catholic children. There is only one clear way forward. Mary must be confined and prevented from gaining her rightful place on any throne. To do that she places this most dangerous woman in the safe keeping of her most trusted servant, George Talbot, Lord High Steward – reputed to be the most honourable man in England. But Elizabeth had not counted on Mary’s intelligence, her ability to scheme and scheme again and her well founded ability to make almost anyone fall in love with her and do her will – even Talbot begins to fall under her spell despite being newly married to his singular wife Elizabeth, known to history as Bess of Hardwick. As conspiracy, rebellion, uprising and possible invasion for the combined forces of France and Spain loom large Bess struggles to keep her finances afloat as she watches Mary weave her spell around her fool of a husband worried that he might take the ultimate gamble and aid her escape - thereby dooming them all.

This is another facet of British history that I knew the outline of but very little of the detail. I had heard or read about the main characters in books both fiction and non-fiction. Bess of Hardwick is a well-known character (yet again I knew of her but had little background detail) who, for me turned out to be the most fascinating character in the book – though I admit that I too felt the pull of Mary Stewart’s beauty – who came from almost nowhere to become one of the richest women in England through her own hard work and business acumen. Her life definitely needs a follow on from this book and one of her biographies is already on its way from Amazon. The overall story – the tragedy of Mary in particular – is fascinating and shows Queen Elizabeth at her controlling, paranoid and fearful worst. As a character on the periphery of this novel she does not come across as either a likable or particularly effective monarch. How true that is I don’t know but the Elizabethan period is definitely continuing to exert its pull on my time and interest. It would probably been a pretty awful time to live in – especially as a Catholic (as I technically am) – and novels such as this remind me that however we might romanticise much of history that they were not pleasant places to be.

Well written, honestly gripping, full of interesting detail, great characterisation and an eye-opening insight into events as they unfolded during one of the most turbulent periods in Elizabeth’s reign. Brilliant and highly recommended.      

[2015 Reading Challenge: A Book based on a true story – COMPLETE (11/50)]