Category: Challenge 2017

Book Review – Anne Boleyn: A King’s Obsession by Alison Weir

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anneboleyn

Impeccably researched tale of obsession, intrigue and power in Henry VIII’s court

About the Book

Publisher’s description: A novel filled with new insights into the story of Henry VIII’s second – and most infamous – wife, Anne Boleyn. This is the second book in the epic Six Tudor Queens series, from the acclaimed historian and bestselling author of Katherine of Aragon. It is the spring of 1527. Henry VIII has come to Hever Castle in Kent to pay court to Anne Boleyn. He is desperate to have her. For this mirror of female perfection he will set aside his Queen and all Cardinal Wolsey’s plans for a dynastic French marriage. Anne Boleyn is not so sure. She loathes Wolsey for breaking her betrothal to the Earl of Northumberland’s son, Harry Percy, whom she had loved. She does not welcome the King’s advances; she knows that she can never give him her heart. But hers is an opportunist family. And whether Anne is willing or not, they will risk it all to see their daughter on the throne…

Book Facts

  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 544
  • Publication Date: 18th May 2017
  • Genre: Historical Fiction

My Review (4 out of 5)

Informed by her trademark impeccable research, Alison Weir gives us her fictionalised account of the life of Anne Boleyn from her childhood to her tragic death at the hands of Henry VIII. She details Henry’s pursuit of Anne, the political and religious consequences of his attempt to have his marriage to Katherine Aragon annulled and Anne’s eventual downfall. This is a long book and although I very much enjoyed the early sections covering Anne’s youth in the courts of Europe, I found the parts covering the “Great Matter” (Henry’s attempts to annul his marriage to Katherine) just a little too detailed. It felt almost as interminable to this reader as it must have done to Anne.

Although I have enjoyed Philippa Gregory’s Tudor novels, I’ve sometimes found them a little light on historical content. However, I found myself rather longing for some of Gregory’s sprightly inventiveness to enliven this book. I feel Weir redeemed herself in the final sections covering Anne’s downfall as these were much more enjoyable and the final pages recounting Anne’s execution were heartbreaking. Lovers of serious historical fiction will really enjoy this book.

I received an advance review copy courtesy of NetGalley and publishers, Headline, in return for an honest review.

In three words: Well-researched, detailed, fascinating

Try something similar…Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir

weir About the Author

Alison Weir (born 1951) is a British writer of history books for the general public, mostly in the form of biographies about British kings and queens. She currently lives in Surrey, England, with her two children. Before becoming an author, Weir worked as a teacher of children with special needs. She received her formal training in history at teacher training college.  Author website

Book Review: Miss Boston and Miss Hargreaves by Rachel Malik

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boston

Tender story of the land, friendship and secret lives

About the Book

Publisher’s description: During the Second World War, Rene Hargreaves leaves her children with her aunt and boards a train without buying a return ticket, so sure is she that she never wants to see her husband again. Instead she starts a new life as a Land Girl on Starlight Farm. She finds its owner Elsie Boston and her country ways strange at first, yet as their relationship develops they become inextricably dependent on each other, long after the war has ended. When their shared life is suddenly threatened by a visitor who comes to stay and events that follow, they must begin to fight a war of their own against not just their community, but the nation’s press and the full force of the law.

Book Facts

  • Format: Hardcover
  • Pages: 320
  • Publication date: 27th April 2017
  • Genre: Literary, Historical Fiction

My Review (5 out of 5)

The story is based on the life of Rachel Malik’s own grandmother but, as she states, the book is ‘a fiction and not a speculation and it should be read as such’. Initially, it took me a while to adapt to the rhythm of the author’s writing style: ‘For they were all gone: two sisters married and third moved away; three brothers, dead such a long time ago – their names engraved on the memorial to prove it; her mother and her father as well’. However once I did, I really became immersed in the story and totally engaged with the two main characters, Rene and Elsie.

From the start, Elsie is an enigmatic character, cherishing her solitude and resisting intrusion from neighbours, seeing this as ‘encroachment’. At the same time, she has a ‘lonely power’ that proves strangely attractive to Rene: ‘Elsie wasn’t quite like other people, but that didn’t matter to Rene’.   Elsie’s strangeness is communicated in small ways, such as by gestures. When Rene first arrives at Starlight Farm: ‘She had offered her hand to Elsie, and Elsie had reached out hers but it wasn’t a greeting – Elsie had reached out as if she were trapped and needed to be pulled out, pulled free’. Gradually, they find each meets a kind of need in the other – Elsie, for companionship and a conduit to the outside world, and Rene, for refuge from her past: “Elsie knew that Rene fitted. A stranger to be sure, but one who didn’t make her feel strange.’

The development of Elsie and Rene’s relationship over time is tenderly observed without explicitly stating its nature.  Instead their growing mutual dependence is indicated by small things, like shared evenings listening to radio plays or the way they address each other: ‘A “we” was creeping into their talk, sometimes an “us”‘.  Eventually, Rene shares more details about her own history and the choices she has made. The War beings tumultuous change but also new beginnings for the pair. Then a figure from Rene’s past disrupts their way of life and brings with it grave consequences that puts their life together under an unwelcome and potentially life-changing spotlight.

This book is probably not everyone’s cup of tea (not that there isn’t plenty of tea drinking in it) but I absolutely fell in love with it.

I received an advance review copy courtesy of NetGalley and publishers, Penguin Books UK, in return for an honest review.

In three words: Moving, tender, engaging

Try something similar…A Place Called Winter by Patrick Gale

About the Author

Rachel Malik was born in London in 1965 of mixed English and Pakistani parentage. She studied English at Cambridge and Linguistics at Strathclyde. For many years, Rachel taught English Literature at Middlesex University. Miss Boston and Miss Hargreaves is her first novel.