The Lady Elizabeth – Alison Weir

Rather a slog, with a few sections rather too dry and academic reading and/or drawn out periods of tedious (rather than tense) incarceration. It doesn’t help that you know the end of story already, so the moments of jeopardy can’t really ring as true as they must have done for Elizabeth Tudor herself. On the plus side, there is an interesting extension of the explanation of Elizabeth’s steadfast refusal to marry, together with an interesting take on the romps with Thomas Seymour.

But, having ploughed through to the end, the most intriguing are the numerous references to Anne of Cleves – coming 4th out of the divorced beheaded died, divorced beheaded survived – who, it turns out stayed in England after her divorce from Henry VIII (I’d always assumed she had returned home) which makes me want to find out more about her story.

Amazon.co.uk link: The Lady Elizabeth – Alison Weir

Innocent Traitor – Alison Weir

A loan from Janette, Innocent Traitor tells the tale of Lady Jane Grey, who ruled England for 9 days in 1553 between Henry VIII’s sickly son King Edward VI and catholic Queen Mary. It made me realise with some surprise that her story hasn’t been covered in popular historical fiction before.

I have memories of the powerful picture of Queen Jane in the Ladybird Kings and Queens of Britain part 1 – blindfolded and reaching for the block. It was either The Execution of Lady Jane Grey by Paul Delaroche, or something very similar…

A good read, but, for me, not one that merits the blurb on the front cover, “If you don’t cry at the end, you have a heart of stone.”

Amazon.co.uk link: Innocent Traitor – Alison Weir