Just Finished Reading: The Testimony of Alys Twist by Suzannah Dunn (FP: 2020) [273pp] 

England, circa 1554. It was the very pinnacle of achievement; she was a laundress to royalty itself. It was, even if she said so herself, a strange kind of royalty – a Queen, ruling alone, without a man, a King, to guide her. Alys thought it both disturbing and oddly exhilarating. Even so, a Queen needed a King to produce heirs and Queen Mary wasn’t getting any younger. More worryingly though was the fact that the new monarch still clung to the old religion and was, it seemed, dedicated to bringing it back to prominence with all the dangers that such an idea entailed. One of those dangers was the Queen’s younger half-sister the Lady Elizabeth. As an adherent to the new religion of Protestantism she was likely to be a lightning rod for any conspiracy against the rightful crown. But Miss Twist thankfully realised, this was none of her concern – until it was. The Lady Elizabeth needed staff and elements within the Queens orbit needed information. As Alys had only just arrived at court, she was the ideal subject to be transferred to look after Elizabeth’s laundry. Now at the very heart of things, Alys begins to wonder which side she was on and whether being on any side in such an endeavour wasn’t just a quick road to an execution. 

As usual I picked this up years ago because it looked interesting and different. It also focused on a particularly interesting period of English/Tudor history – the countries (brief) return to Catholicism following Henry’s establishment of the Church of England and the reign of ‘Bloody Mary’ so revealed in later centuries. Although both monarchs are only very briefly ‘on the page’ they have very distinct and well-known characters – Elizabeth is young, intelligent, crafty and lucky whilst Mary is wracked with doubt, pious to a fault, paranoid (especially about Elizabeth) and delusional if not actually mad. The main thrust of this often-excellent novel is, as the title suggests, the life of Alys Twist herself. Alys is a great character, maybe a little too modern for the period but I can understand why this is the case. Like updating the language to a more modern parlance – I'm not sure if more authentic ‘Shakespearian English’ would work with most readers! - a more modern mindset/personality is more palatable to a modern reader as long as things aren’t TOO modern that is. This is where the author come in for my only criticism, if I can use that word. The world the author creates and the characters she populates it with are very good indeed. The author's style is, likewise, very good indeed and I thoroughly enjoyed my reading experience. But, sometimes, I paused and thought to myself – did people REALLY say such things in the mid 16th century? Would someone in 1544 even find that particular thought even possible? I’ll explain... 

Metaphors or styles of speech have their time and place. Words, meanings and common usage are born, live and, sometimes, die. Phrases have historical roots. For example, a Roman would never have said that something was ‘a flash in the pan’ or that everything had been taken ‘lock, stock, and barrel’ - because both phrases date from the age of gunpowder flintlocks. In this novel nothing ‘quite’ like that happened, but on more than one occasion the author used a phrase that knocked me out of the narrative because it made me wonder – without any actual knowledge to back it up – if such a phrase COULD be used at the time. It certainly didn’t ruin things for me – nowhere near – but it was more than a little irritating at times. This was, however, my only quibble with the book which, apart from that, I thought very good and edging towards excellent. It’s from a very interesting period of British history, its chocked full of interesting characters and has a real sense of place which I enjoyed. There are some minor (non-conventional) non-explicit romantic elements which shouldn’t bother anyone but is worth a mention. Overall, a fun intriguing read. Definitely recommended to all history, and especially Tudor history, buffs.