Finished reading The Lady Elizabeth by Alison Weir on Saturday morning, just in time to return it to the library! It was one of those books that I never quite got into. I enjoyed reading it, but the compulsion to read on to the next chapter when I really should be doing something else wasn't there. It was an interesting imagining of Elizabeth's early life and there were enough historical facts there to make it convincing. If anything, I would say that the facts were a little intrusive and my overall feeling was that I would rather have read a straight biography of Elizabeth. I did read Elizabeth by David Starkey a few months ago and will confess that I think that was a more enjoyable read (but then, despite his more dislikeable qualities, I am a big fan of David Starkey). For me, Tudor historical fiction doesn't really come any better than Philippa Gregory. I am yet to try any Suzannah Dunn and would be interested to hear what other bloggers think of historical fiction - who are your favourite authors and what period of history do you most enjoy reading about? For me, it's Tudor, or Victorian to Edwardian.Currently reading:
Diana Mosley by Anne de Courcy (only about 100 pages to go, so review coming soon!)
Recently bought:
Picked up a copy of Diaries of Evelyn Waugh (ed. Michael Davie) in the local Oxfam bookshop today
I enjoyed Weir's other book, Innocent Traitor but I've hesitated to buy this one for some reason. I don't think I will now.
ReplyDeleteI do enjoy historical fiction once in a while. I loved the Other Boleyn Girl which was excellent.
I think the problem with Alison Weir's fiction is that she is following on the coat tails of Philippa Gregory, so it all seems a bit like you've read it before. And I'm not sure she has made the transition to fiction writing very smoothly.
ReplyDelete