The Queen’s Fool – Philippa Gregory

A hefty historical novel, but an interesting one, telling the tale of the Tudor court from the perspective of a jewish girl growing up through the Spanish Inquisition and Reformation Europe. The bulk of the novel set in England as it slowly and painfully progresses through the decades of religious strife – from Henry VIII’s opportune adoption of protestantism through the short reign of Edward VI and the burnings under Catholic Mary I to an eventually more tolerant era under Elizabeth I. It’s an unusual angle and a riveting read, mixing well known facts with the more personal insights allowed by fiction.

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