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Surrey, United Kingdom

Tuesday 15 December 2009

The Lady Elizabeth by Alison Weir

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

2 comments:

  1. 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.

    I do enjoy historical fiction once in a while. I loved the Other Boleyn Girl which was excellent.

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  2. 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.

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