The Queen's Fool - Philippa Gregory

I love reading historical novels, and until recently my choices have been rather limited, simply because I didn't know where to find them. For six years I've been reading Jean Plaidy books which I've picked up from local charity shops. Then my mum gave me this book. It didn't look that exciting to be honest. It has a nice enough cover, bearing a picture of a young woman in Tudor dress peering out of a window. Over the top of the picture of the woman was impressed some kind of scripted handwriting, impossible to read but greatly adding to the feeling of history. Now, you might not think a historical novel would be to your taste. No doubt like me you were ...  Read the complete review

I have to broaden my reading tastes. I've been saying it for ages, there are only so many detective and horror novels you can read without being able to second guess the author and know exactly what's going to happen at the end of the book. So in the library a couple of weeks ago I decided to pick a book which ordinarily I wouldn't look at twice on the shelf. I've read historical novels in the past and while I haven't particularly enjoyed the majority of them, I've learned that if you pick the right book you can become engrossed in the lives of people who lived many years ago. I've heard good reports about Philippa Gregory so when I saw 'The Queens Fool' I ...  Read the complete review

I've recently become interested in any novels which are based around history. Particularily the tudor era. However there are only so many books you can read about Elizabeth I, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Parr without getting sick to the back teeth of the lot of them. Although this one is not far off it just gives a different topic other than the major Queens which were coming and going at that point in time. Philippa Gregory isn't my favourite of authors and I find that some of her books are a bit hit and miss with me but The Queen's Fool is one of her best so far. Written in 2004 this historical novel is set between 1548 and 1558 and is the ...  Read the complete review

Hannah Green is no fool, changing her name from Verde to Green was a clever move for a start. Spanish in origin, running from the inquisition who burned her mother at the stake for being a heretic. In London there is nothing to prove her for anything other than a dedicated protestant, however the books and manuscripts in her fathers shop could cause outrage if their secret cellar were to be discovered. In the winter of 1552 Hannah Green a young Spanish Jew finds herself whisked away from her fathers little bookshop, still in her boys britches, and begged to the young King Edward as a Holy Fool. She has “the sight.” and is bluntly truthful, something rare in ...  Read the complete review

As a book lover, I know how pleased I am to discover a new author – one I love and want to read all their novels. So you can imagine how thrilled I was to discover a whole new genre! I had previously read – and hated – The Little House, but friends told me to try Gregory’s historical fiction instead and I am glad I did, as I love it! I first read The Other Boleyn Girl, which was excellent and after that, I bought nine of her other novels. The Queen’s Fool can be read alone, but I would recommend reading The Other Boleyn Girl first, because it provides the historical background for Elizabeth and Mary, the royal princesses who feature heavily in this one. Either ...  Read the complete review