THE OTHER QUEEN.

THE OTHER QUEEN by PHILIPPA GREGORY.

Philippa Gregory's dazzling new novel looks at the captive years of Mary Queen of Scots. Mary, in flight from rebels in Scotland, has trusted her cousin Elizabeth I's promise of sanctuary, but she finds herself imprisoned as the enforced guest of George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, and his dominant wife, Bess of Hardwick.

The newly married couple welcome the doomed queen, certain that serving as her hosts and jailors will bring them nothing but advantage in the competitive world of Tudor England. To their horror they find their home becomes the epicentre of intrigue against Elizabeth, and even their own loyalty comes under suspicion. If their marriage is threatened by George's hopeless admiration for the beautiful young queen, they will face ruin. But if his devotion to the Queen of England is compromised by his love for the Queen of Scots, he will face the gallows.

The English lords conspire with Spain, the Duke of Northumberland and the northern earls to free Mary from imprisonment, a plot that will be the greatest threat Elizabeth has ever faced. But then the great spy-master Cecil sets the trap to catch them all, setting the Scots queen on the road to her death at Fotheringhay.

- Inside Front Cover Blurb

Every woman should marry for her own advantage since her husband will represent her, as visible as her front door, for the rest of his life.

- First Sentence; 1568, Autumn, Chatsworth House, Derbyshire: Bess

If I were foolish like the common people I would think I see the touch of God. I would think I see a woman who is as beautiful as an angel, because she is an angel, an angel on earth, as simple as that.

- Memorable Moment; Page 59

SOURCE ... A gift from Mr T.

READ FOR A CHALLENGE? ... No.

MY THOUGHTS ... Alas a series that has proved to be both a hit and miss with me. This particular novel (book 15 if taken in chronological order and not in the order of publication) I'm sorry to say falling in the latter category as one of the least enjoyable books in what is generally known as the Plantagenet and Tudor series*.

Told from three view points, a tactic that had been put to good use by the author before in, if memory serves me right, book 9, 'The Other Boleyn Girl' - or was it book 10, 'The Boleyn Inheritance'? Or maybe it was both. Anyway ...

What I felt to be rashly used on this occasion when the view points changed so often (sometimes in as little as just over a page) it was difficult to keep up, the fact that the character's voices weren't distinct enough only compounding the problem.

Then there was the tedious repetitiveness; that like a dog with a bone Gregory worried over some points, hammering them home over and over again in a novel that, very much dialogue based, is almost totally without action. Not that this is necessarily a 'bad' thing, I just felt that on the whole the narrative was too monotone and lacking in passion and intrigue to carry a novel of  448 pages.

Lacking in depth, not allowed to develop, the characterisation also proved to be something of a disappointment; Mary herself proving to be the biggest letdown. 

If mentioned once mentioned hundreds of time; I get it! The Queen of Scots was something of a beauty if the way her 'jailor', the Earl of Shrewsbury,  constantly fawned over her/she had men falling at her feet was to be believed. Surely there was more to her than just a pretty face??? I wanted to see more, much more, of the intelligent and feisty woman that Gregory let us all too briefly have glimpses of.

Another bone of contention for me was the inconsistency of the writing. Whilst there are numerous 'small' examples of this perhaps the most significant to me was the rape of Mary.

"'No,' I say as his weight comes down on me. It is what I always say to him. It is the word which means desire to me, to us. It is the word which means yes: 'No.'" 

Given that thinking was very different then; that the power a man had over a woman was absolute, that a woman may well not have thought of this as rape so much as a man's God given right. Goodness only knows its even within the realms of possibility that Mary did indeed think she was in love with Bothwell. 

It wasn't so much that my modern sensibilities were outraged (though of course they were), it wasn't even so much that Gregory kept hammering home that Mary was no ordinary woman but a queen. What got to me was this inconsistency. That whilst Gregory on several occasions had it that though saying 'no' Mary actually means 'yes' she later has Mary categorically state that she was raped.

Not one of her better books by any stretch of the imagination, its certainly one of the weaker (if not weakest) offerings in this particular series; without doubt this isn't Gregory at her finest. I'm now rethinking my two star 'It was OK' rating. Was there really so little I actually liked about this book? 

* Combining what are known as the 'Cousins War Series' and the 'Tudor Court Series', in chronological order as opposed to the order in which they were published, the 'Plantagenet and Tudor Novels Series' comprises ...

1. The Lady of the Rivers 
2. The White Queen
3. The Red Queen 
4. The Kingmaker's Daughter 
5. The White Princess 
6. The Constant Princess 
7. The King's Curse 
8. Three Sisters, Three Queens 
9. The Other Boleyn Girl 
10. The Boleyn Inheritance 
11. The Taming of the Queen 
12. The Queen's Fool 
13. The Virgin's Lover 
14. The Last Tudor 
15. The Other Queen

For a list of the author's book please click here. Her new novel Tidelands is available as of August 2019.