Review: Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks

1 Book I Read

Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks

2 words that describe the book:    American History

3 settings and/or characters I met:

• Caleb's Crossing is set in the 1660's on the island now known as Martha's Vineyard, off the south of Cape Cod in New England. 
• Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck is the young son of a chieftain of the Wampanoag tribe. Destined to be their leader one day his contact with the Puritans and the resulting education he receives makes him increasingly aware of how he can use this knowledge to help his people. 
• Bethia Mayfield is the daughter of a Calvinist minister, a spirited 12-year-old when the story begins, whose  grandfather founded the Puritan settlement on the island to get away from John Winthrop's rule. Bethia's father's mission is to convert the Native Americans to Christianity but in a way that fosters good relationships and peaceable living between the two peoples. When she meets Caleb they form a friendship from which each will learn about the customs and beliefs of the other's culture.

4 things I liked/disliked about the book:

• I'm a huge fan of Geraldine Brooks and I love her ability to take a small and obscure fragment of history and write a book from it. Little is known about Caleb except he was the first Native American to graduate from Harvard but the author creates a very credible portrayal of a young man torn between two worlds and struggling to overcome the conflict that causes. 
• The story is told by Bethia who is herself 'crossing' - from a child running free on the island to a young woman confronting the restrictions of her time and her religions. Although she has greater intelligence than her brother, can speak and read Greek and Hebrew and longs for education, Bethia's role-to-be in life is clearly defined as a wife and mother only. 
• I really enjoyed the format - the story being told through Bethia's confessional journal with many archaic words, and turns of phrase that makes it feel very authentic. 
•  The historical background is wonderful - the beauty of the island is vividly described, the contrasting lifestyles and beliefs of the Wampanoag and the Puritans and the very interesting early history of Harvard about which I knew nothing made fascinating reading.

5 Stars or less for my rating:..........4.5 Stars for a fine historical novel . Long awaited I only wish it had been longer.

              Historical Fiction Challenge

              Aussie Author Challenge

              What's In a Name 4 Challenge

Review: The Empress of Ice Cream by Anthony Capella

For the king's pleasure!

Anthony Capella is well known for his books with a food theme and in this one he whips up a delicious concoction from the combination of two unlikely companions.

The story begins with Carlo Demirco as a young apprentice in Italy learning the art of making ice desserts. A small mistake one day shows him there is potential for making an ice with a creamy consistency and from then on he pours all his energy into achieving this.

By 1670 his mastery of this new art has brought him wealth, women and a position at the court of Louis XIV of France.


Louise de Keroulle by Peter Lely

It is here he meets and falls for the beautiful Louise de Keroulle, lady-in-waiting to Madame who is Louis's sister-in-law and sister to Charles II of England.After the premature death of Madame , Louise and Carlo are sent to England as a little sweet temptation to ensure Charles' support for Louis' political plans.

The weary decadence of Charles II's court with it's petty intrigues and vicious backstabbing is vividly described - not a pleasant place to be although cameo appearances by the irrepressible Nell Gwyn add some down to earth humour.

Carlo and Louise alternate in telling the story which gives two perpectives to the events happening and as time goes on two very different decisions about what each wants from life.
I really liked the quotes at the beginning of each chapter - Carlo has recipes from the Book of Ices which have the most intriguing ingredients , and Louise has excerpts from letters and articles of the time.

The perfect mix of fact and fiction, the history of ice cream and a royal mistress, a well written and entertaining book that will appeal to all lovers historical fiction . I loved it!

Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Sphere, 2010
399p

Historical Fiction Challenge
Royal Mistress Challenge

Musashi Readalong - Part 6

Readalong hosted by Jenners at Life...With Books.


Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa - translated from the Japanese by Charles S. Terry.
With a foreword by Edwin O. Reischauer.
First published 1971.

The Classic samurai novel about the real exploits of the most famous swordsman.

The 970p volume is separated into seven different books and we're reading one for each 9 day period of the readalong.

Book 1 - Book 2 - Book 3 - Book 4 - Book 5

Book 6 - Sun and Moon

I enjoyed this book - it was shorter and had less darting off into different subplots. Most of the manin characters are in or around Edo ( Tokyo) and their activities were connecting and it was all much easier to follow.

Osugi - it must be 7 -8 years since the story began so she must be almost 70 years old by now which in the 17th century must surely have been considered a great age but nothing seems to keep this indomitable old lady from her quest for revenge. She's been conducting a most successful smear campaign against Musashi which is made even worse by his refusal to retaliate.

Musashi  is definitely older and wiser than the rash, undisciplined boy he was and rather than look for trouble he and Ioro build themselves a home outside of Edo where he concentrates on training the boy .

The Great Revelation

Iori wants to attend the dance festival at the Mitzumine Shrine and ,although reluctant ,Musashi agrees to take him.


Musashi Self Portrait


It is here that he has the 'aha' moment that would make him famous throughout the country for generations to come.

" The revelation struck like lightning. Musashi had been watching the hands of one of the drummers, weilding two short, clubshaped drumsticks. He sucked in his breath and shouted " That's it! Two swords!"

Musashi is also being considered for a position as a tutor to the shogun but a wrongful arrest for theft which lands him in jail adds more fuel to Osugi's campaign and he is refused the appointment because of unfavourable reports of his character.

" What was left unexplained was why people accepted so unquestioningly what they were told. Not just ordinary people - women gossiping around the well or laboureres drinking in cheap sake shops - but men who had the intelligence to sift fact from fabrication."

Having come to the conclusion he didn't really want the position anyway but didn't want to upset his friends and sponsors, Musashi is not at all upset about the decision.

Jotaro returns - having spent the past few years with his adoptive father, Daizo, he is rescued in the nick of time for Daizo is involved in a plot against the shogun.
Matahachi and Akemi , who have been living as man and wife, also find themselves mixed up in the plot and are very lucky to escape with their lives, suffering a severe whipping but saved from losing their heads..........thanks to Takuan.

A discovery is made that reveals Otsu is Iori's long lost sister.

Musashi decides to go away to the mountains for a few years and he leaves the care of Ioro  to Gonnosuke and a letter for his friends that ends " Indulging my chronic wanderlust, I am setting out on another journey."

One more book to go...........

Review: The Rossetti Letter by Christi Phillips

Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2007
383p


Venice - city of secrets, masks, romance and danger!

In the early 17th century a Venetian courtesan, Alessandra Rossetti, becomes embroiled in a dangerous political intrigue. She alone has the power to reveal a Spanish plot against the Republic. But to do so would threaten the life of the one she loves.
Centuries later, postgraduate student, Claire Donovan is writing her dissertation on the young courtesan. She knows Alessandra wrote a secret letter to the Venetian Council exposing the Spanish Conspiracy but until now, no one knows how Alessandra learned of the plot or what happened to her once it was revealed.


When Claire is asked if she will chaperone rebellious teenager, Gwen, on a trip to Venice, it's an opportunity she can't turn down. A chance to continue her research and attempt to locate vital documents and to attend lectures at the University on her subject. Until she discovers that a Cambridge professor will be presenting a paper on the Spanish Conspiracy asserting that Alessandra was a co-conspirator. If he can prove his theory all of Claire's work, and her academic career, will be ruined.

17th century Venice is vividly depicted and rich in obviously well researched period detail. Alessandra's story is told from her early life as the daughter of a wealthy merchant to being orphaned and trained in the life of a courtesan. Despite the beauty of Venice her world becomes one of darkness and fear where political intrigue is always present and threatening and reading these chapters one can constantly feel an atmosphere of impending tragedy .
For the second time this month the inclusion of Tarot into the story added an extra interest for me.

The modern day sections aren't as interesting but I do think the author did well by creating a much lighter atmosphere to contrast with Alessandra's story. Some of the dialogue between Claire and both Gwen and Andrew is very amusing. I didn't really care for the extra romantic interests which seemed a bit unnecessary but enjoyed the central plot development and sharing Claire's efforts to follow the clues and discover the truth of the Rossetti Letter.

Extras that are always appreciated include a list of characters, a list of sources and an author's note to help differentiate between fact and fiction.

The Rossetti Letter is one of those books that is a mixture of many things - history, mystery, romance and adventure - which when put together make very entertaining reading. I enjoyed it!

Historical Tapestry ABC Challenge


V is for Venice

SM5S Review: The Pindar Diamond by Katie Hickman

A fun way to add variety to review formats this meme was created by Alipet at That's A Novel Idea.

Jenners at Life...With Books  has the Mr Linky each week so we can share our posts .

 

 
1 book I read: The Pindar Diamond by Katie Hickman
 
2 words that describe the book: Historical intrigue
 
3 settings and/or characters I met:

• Venice 1604: Paul Pindar is a merchant who, devastated by the loss of his betrothed, is gambling away his fortune and heading for financial ruin. When rumours of a spectacularly rare diamond, The Sultan's Blue, begin to circulate he becomes convinced that the jewel is somehow linked to his lost love and obessed with obtaining for himself.
• Annetta: Has found refuge in the convent in which she was once a lay worker after escaping from life in a harem . She now has a large dowry of jewels which will enable her to become one of the privileged choir nuns although her spirited nature doesn't make her a suitable candidate for the religious life.
• Maryam and her troupe of circus tumblers who travel around the country entertaining the villagers. In a small fishing village they discover a mute young woman who was rescued from the sea by the fisherman and has since given birth to a deformed child. The villagers consider 'the mermaid' to be unlucky and Maryam is persuaded to take her away with the performers.

4 things I liked/disliked about the book:

• I always enjoy reading about how convent life was in different times. It seems so sad that so many young women were placed there not because they had a vocation but simply for their family's convenience. There is some nice detail of the ways they filled their days and of the social order within the walls. With her recently aquired dowry Annetta plans to live like the noblewoman and flout as many rules as possible........to be like Suor Caterina who "

...wore her black veil pushed back high over the crown of her head, showing her blond hair beneath, two curls pinched out either side. She wore high-heeled pattens on her feet, and a bodice pulled down so low it revealed the curve of her small breasts, and a ruby and diamond crucifix hung from a gold chain round her waist."

• I also enjoyed the story of giantess Maryam and her troupe. The author has a great storytelling writing style and their adventures with the mermaid added an almost fantasy element which was very entertaining.
• I didn't care for Paul Pindar, his courtesan, gambling and obsession for the diamond and  17th century Venice didn't come to life at all.
• At the beginning I felt as though I was reading three different stories that would eventually link through the diamond......which they do.....but I hadn't realised that this was a sequel to an earlier book called The Aviary Gate which I haven't read. I might have felt more connection to the characters and enjoyed it more if I had. The ending seemed rather rushed and inconclusive which makes me think there is another to come.

5 Stars or less for my rating:

I'm giving The Pindar Diamond 3 Stars.............it's nicely written , it makes pleasant light reading but it didn't have enough plot and character substance or historical background for me.

Year of the Historical Challenge

Review: Peony in Love by Lisa See

Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Bloomsbury, 2007
280p

A haunting love story steeped in the richness and rituals of 17th century China.

Peony is the cherished only child of of a wealthy Chinese nobleman. Yet she is betrothed to a man she has never met, and as her 16th birthday approaches, she has neither seen or spoken to any man other than her father, and has never ventured outside the cloistered women's quarters of the family villa. Her father has encouraged her education and even allowed her to read the opera 'The Peony Pavilion' despite the fact it's theme was considered unsuitable for young girls.

The Peony Pavilion was written by Tang Xianzu in 1598 and has always been controversial and censored for it's political and lascivious content. It was the first piece of Chinese fiction in which the heroine, a young girl, was to choose her own destiny. In the opera the heroine dies of a broken heart by starving herself to death, and then haunting her lover until he figures out how to bring her back to life.

For her birthday celebrations, Peony's father arranges for a theatrical performance of part of the opera in the family garden and the women are allowed to listen from behind screens. Peony catches sight of a young man and is immediately smitten . She slips away to a private place in the garden and there comes face to face with her perfect man.................her story will now reflect that of the opera.

On it's own the storyline, and what little plot there is, does have weaknesses........it's predictable and probably less a romance and more a melodramatic soap opera  but there is so much more to this novel that makes it worth reading. I like Lisa See's writing style.........her descriptive prose evokes a wonderful atmosphere of time and place and she has the ability to touch the reader at the emotional level.

I liked the historical background. It offers a glimpse into the lives of the women, the poetry and opera and the women writers of the time . But what interested me the most was the details of Chinese beliefs and rituals surrounding death , burial and the afterlife.
"Mama placed a sliver of jade in my mouth to safeguard my body. Second Aunt tucked coins in my pockets so I might soothe the rabid dogs I'd meet on my way to the afterworld. Third Aunt covered my face with a thin piece of white silk. Fourth Aunt tied coloured string round my waist to prevent me from carrying away any of our family's children...."

Fascinating stuff!

A lovely story - I enjoyed it!

 Historical Tapestry ABC Challenge

P is for Peony.

Review: Lady of the Butterflies by Fiona Mountain

Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Preface 2009
510p


'All I ever wanted was to be happy, to love and be loved, and for my life to count for something. That is not madness, is it?'

Set in Somerset and London during the Restoration , Lady of the Butterflies is a dramatic tale of passion, riot and rebellion, prejudice and superstition and the beauty, hope and transformation symbolised by the butterfly.

It is the story of a fascinating woman, Lady Eleanor Glanville.

Eleanor was born the daughter of a Puritan, a Roundhead soldier and was raised in the beautiful medieval manor, Tickenham Court, in Somerset. A home she will inherit on the death of her father.

From an early age she loved the butterflies for they provided the lightness and colour prohibited by the plain and strict Puritan beliefs.
Eleanor marries but falls passionately in love with her husband Edmund's friend, the dashing Cavalier, Richard Glanville. After Edmund's death, under rather suspicious circumstances, Eleanor and Richard marry.....

A long lasting friendship begins when Eleanor meets a young apothecary on a visit to London. James Petiver would become a renowned naturalist and is credited as the father of British entomology. He and Eleanor began to correspond, sharing their love for butterflies and with James' help and encouragement was able to continue her scientific studies , finding happiness in her work when her personal life was filled with sorrow. 

'They say I am mad and perhaps it's true.'

This lovely butterfly, the Glanville Fritillary bears the name of a woman who is recognised today as a distinguished entomologist. In her own time a man who chased butterflies was subjected to derision.......for a woman it was unthinkable that she would forego the joys of domesticity in favour of learning and science.

A background rich in historical detail.

In the 17th century the wetlands of Somerset were still known as the Summer Lands.........lush pastures in summer, in winter covered with flood waters. Over the centuries the people had adapted , walking on stilts , rowing boats to church and making a livelihood from the sedge that grew in the water. But progress was bringing drainage and a threat to their way of life and the local folk feared Eleanor would decide to drain her lands.

The Monmouth Rebellion and the Battle of Sedgemoor - as in the Civil War of the previous generation families are divided and brother fights brother - a slaughter that results in the infamous Bloody Assizes of Judge Jefferies. A conflict that will turn Eleanor and Richard into bitter enemies.

A glorious historical saga spanning thirty-five years and top marks to Fiona Mountain for finding a subject that hasn't been written about a dozen times before. An amazing woman, Lady Eleanor Glanville, who surely had the odds stacked against her all the way. Beautifully written, the perfect balance between personal story and historical background -  I 100% totally loved this book and highly recommend it to all historical fiction lovers.

Royal Reviews Historical Challenge
Typically British Challenge
Year of the Historical Challenge

Review: The Wilding by Maria McCann

Title: The Wilding
Author: Maria McCann
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Faber and Faber, 2010

335p

1672 - a generation after the Civil War, England is still struggling to return to normal after the bloody conflict. In the village of Spadboro, Jonathan Dymond, a cider maker who lives with his parents, has so far enjoyed a quiet and harmonious life. But the death of his uncle leads Jonathan to secrets which have lain dormant since the war..............

Narrated by Jonathan, who we're informed is past his 21st birthday which in those times would have been considered well into adulthood . I sometimes found the way he was thinking and acting to be that of someone younger and more naive.............or a bit dim! The story is entertaining enough with the secrets slowly being revealed but it's not all that original and very predictable in places.

The real beauty of this book lies in the description of English rural life which the author brings so vividly to life and the star of the show is neither person or plot but the apple tree, its fruit and the cider it produces.

"Certain smells seem as old as Eden: heaps of apples on the turn, smoke coming off sweet wood, the earth opening up in Spring. As long as there have been people, there have been these - so ancient they are, so God-given. I loved the heady stink of fermentation - 'apples and a little rot", as the cottagers said - and the bright brown sweat that dripped from the murc even before the screw was turned, the generous spirit of the apple that made the best cider of all."

By the middle of the 17th century cider had become the drink of choice for the larger population of Britain. Almost every farm had an apple orchard and a press and cider was often given as part of a worker's wages.
"Good cider cures anything".........In 1664 John Evelyn wrote of the healthful benefits of cider " .....it excites and cleanses the Stomach, strengthens Digestion and infallibly frees the Kidneys."

In the Autumn, the months Aug -Dec. the fruit begins to ripen and then allowed to fall before gathering. The various varieties matured at different times and the whole community was involved in bringing in their own and the neighbours crops before they over ripened.

Redstreak, Foxwhelp, Royal Wilding, Meadgate - these wonderful names flow off the tongue and give each an individuality . Like people, each has it's own flavour - sweet, sour, luscious, bitter - that will be present in the cider it produces.

When the apples have been pressed and the cider has been stored in barrels it's time for the big celebration.
Wassailing - the traditional folk custom of wassailing fruit trees - a ceremony intended to begin the process of waking the fruit trees from their winter slumber and the first fertility festival of the folk calendar.

It's all fascinating and why I love historical fiction so much . This is a book that is best appreciated when you can connect the people and storyline with the apples and the process of cider making which it took me a while to do. The cover is beautiful and a perfect illustration for what the story is about.

The Wilding? - A wild or uncultivated plant; especially, a wild apple tree or crab apple; also, the fruit of such a plant............." a bastard tree".

I'm not going to go wild about this book but overall I did enjoy it.

Royal Reviews Historical Fiction Challenge
What's in a Name 3 Challenge ( title with a plant in it)
Typically British Challenge

Review: The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent

Title: The Heretic's Daughter
Author: Kathleen Kent
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, 2008

332p

Martha Carrier was hanged on August 19th 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts, unyielding in her refusal to admit to being a witch, going to her death rather than joining the ranks of men and women who confessed and were thereby spared execution. In this novel her story is told by her daughter, Sarah, who was 10-years-old at the time of the horrific Salem witch trials.

The story begins in 1690 as Sarah and her family are moving from their home in Billerica to live with Martha's mother in Andover. Although they don't realise it they carry with them the dreaded smallpox and will later be blamed for the sickness and deaths in Andover.

The first part of the book moves quietly and is a wonderful picture of the lives of these early settlers. A hard and brutal life .......little more than a daily struggle to survive, to overcome the harsh weather, the fears of sickness, marauding Indians, starvation and death. Physical hardship that was matched by a cold and heartless religion based on the belief that everything that goes wrong in life is a punishment from God for sin.
A religion that bullied and threatened ............and the easiest way to avoid having the finger pointed at yourself was to make sure it pointed at someone else. Discover their secrets, find their weakness.......

"A needle is such a small brittle thing. It is easily broken. It can hold but one fragile thread. But if the needle is sharp, it can pierce the coarsest cloth. Ply the needle in and out of a canvas and with a great length of thread one can make a sail to move a ship across the ocean. In such a way can a sharp gossipy tongue, with the thinnest thread of rumor, stitch together a story to flap in the breeze. Hoist that story upon the pillar of superstitious belief and a whole town can be pulled along with the wind of fear."

The central theme is not the witch trials but the relationship between Sarah and her mother. They are often at loggerheads and find difficulty in communicating on an emotional level. Not so strange really for I imagine a 10 yr old of that time would be the equivalent of a rebellious teenager now. Sarah will not only lose her mother in the most horrible way but will carry forever the memory of having to follow out her mother's instructions and testify against her in order to save herself and her brothers.

This is probably the best book I've ever read of the Salem Witch trials...........in the first part Kathleen Kent skilfully lets the tension build quietly beneath the surface until the fear and suspicion burst forth and hysteria takes over. The details of the imprisonment of women with their tiny children in the most dreadful of conditions are quite terrible but out of the horror emerges a woman of courage and honour .

Kathleen Kent , a direct descendant of Martha Carrier, has brought to life a short period of history with a fine mix of well researched facts and creative imagination. Highly recommended particularly to historical fiction readers.

Royal Reviews Historical Fiction Challenge

Historical Tapestry ABC Historical Fiction Challenge

K is for Kathleen Kent

Review: Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks

Title: Year of Wonders
Author: Geraldine Brooks
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Fourth Estate, 2001

304p

In August of 1665 a bolt of flea infested cloth from plague-stricken London was delivered to a tailor in the small and quiet village of Eyam in Derbyshire, England. Within a week the tailor was dead and the dreaded sickness was spreading through the village. Following the advice of the young Rector William Mompesson and the previous Puritan incumbent Thomas Stanley the extraordinary decision was made to voluntarily place the village in quarantine. Fourteen months later three quarters of the village population had died but their courageous action had prevented the plague from spreading further.

Geraldine Brooks has taken this true event and woven it into a spellbinding story rich in descriptive prose and

vivid in characterisation.

The year unfolds through the eyes of eighteen-year-old Anna Frith, widowed and mother of two small sons, who is the housekeeper for the Rector and his wife. In the coming months she will confront the daily presence of death , the loss of her family and friends, the disintegration of her community, and the lure of a dangerous and illicit love.
Death walks hand in hand with fear and while the villagers have a strong religious faith it's also one that sees the pestilence as a punishment for their sins. As the fear and grief mount so do the violent reactions and the desperate searching for someone to blame. Murder, witch hunts and grave robbing become commonplace.

For others, like Anna,  the personal crisis will bring forth a compassion , courage and strength of character not before realised.

Excerpt p87.......There is, among these old graves, a great soaring stone cross, carved cunningly in the ancient ways of the people who walked these hills beyond the reach of memory.........................I would lean against the cross, resting my forehead against the rough grit of its wind-pitted surface. Remembered prayer-fragments formed and the dissolved, interrupted by the confusion of my thoughts. Behold the Handmaid of the Lord. Why was I not one of the many in the chamber of Death?

Accompanied by the Rector's gentle and loving wife , Elinor, Anna begins to move into the empty places of the dead. The two women take over the 'witches garden' and learn the ancient methods of healing plants and physicks, they become midwives and nurses and through healing become themselves healed.

Geraldine Brooks has the ability to write about people, places and events in a way that draws you deep into narrative on a very emotional level. Whether she is describing the beauty of the countryside or the ghastly symptoms of bubonic plague she makes you feel and that is what makes a book outstanding to me. The ending is not what one might expect and adds a little surprise twist.

Beautifully written historical fiction............I loved it!

Many of the landmarks of the Eyam Plague have been preserved and you can read more on this website.
The first image I used comes from there and the stone cross picture from Wikipedia

Royal Reviews Historical Fiction Challenge

Historical Tapestry's  The Alphabet in Historical Fiction Challenge


E is for Eyam.

Review: A Thousand Orange Trees by Kathryn Harrison

Title: A Thousand Orange Trees
Author: Kathryn Harrison
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Fourth Estate, 1995

317p.


On March 26th, 1662 two little girls were born.

One was a princess: the granddaughter of kings and niece of Charles II of England and the Sun King, Louis XIV of France. Pampered and adored she would spend her young years at the liberal minded and pleasure loving court of France. At the age of 18 she would leave France forever and travel to Spain to become a wife and Queen and on the way "she is forced to abandon the cumbersome orange trees brought from home and leave them to wither in the Pyrennees" - a story that is symbolic of the loss of her childhood and presaging her lonely future at the formal and repressive Spanish court.
At Quintanapalla she marries Charles II of Spain, a young man physically, mentally and emotionally suffering the awful defects of royal inbreeding.

Quintanapalla is the birthplace of the second little girl, the fictional Francisca de Luarca, the daughter of impoverished silkworm farmers. After a tragic and forbidden love affair she is arrested by the Inquisition and it's from her prison cell she dreams of the young Queen and the author weaves together the threads of the lives of  two women powerless to control their destiny.

In between there are wonderfully evocative accounts of silkworms and the art of silk weaving, the heartbreaking tale of the little lovebirds of Paris...... and like a black cloud hanging overhead the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition with its barbaric cruelty and tortures.

I don't think I've ever read a novel of such emotional intensity . Kathryn Harrison's writing is powerful and beautiful and sweeps one page after page from the heights of passion to the depths of suffering and despair and every feeling that lies between.

Compelling and spellbinding - I loved it.

Royal Reviews Historical Fiction Challenge

Colourful Reading Challenge

Who Are You?

Yesterday I went sleuthing. I'm reading A Thousand Orange Trees which has this delightful portrait of a little blonde girl on the cover and at first I assumed she must be Marie Louise d'Orleans because that is who the book is about. But the more I read of Marie Louise's long, dark hair, the more I began to doubt this was so.

I knew the cover image was part of a larger painting - it's very well known and wasn't hard to find.

Las Meninas - Diego Velazquez

Painted in 1656 it depicts the Spanish Court and a young princess surrounded by her ladies-in-waiting. She is the Infanta Margarita Teresa ( 1651-73) daughter of Philip IV of Spain. Marie Louise d'Orleans would one day marry her brother Carlos and become Queen of Spain.

Unlike her brother and other family members Margarita Teresa was spared the awful genetic defects caused by royal inbreeding and Velazquez was to paint this beautiful child many times . At the age of fifteen she left Spain and travelled to Austria to become the wife of the Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold I to whom she'd been betrothed as a child.

Terrible.............more inbreeding.....the man was her maternal uncle and a paternal first cousin.

I like reading they were apparently very happy together because so often these political marriages were a disaster.  There was an age difference and she always called him Uncle so perhaps she went from being the joy of her father's life to a similar relationship with her husband. They both shared a love of music and theatre and the beautiful city of Vienna would have provided many occasions to enjoy operas and concerts.

In spite of this I would say they also shared a great deal of sadness. Between the ages of 15 and 21, Margarita Teresa gave birth to six children of which only one survived, and suffered many miscarriages.

In only six years!

And then she died - presumably of complications following the birth of her last child.

Very sad , the lives of some of these young royal women.

Review: The King's Daughter by Christie Dickason

Title: The King's Daughter
Author: Christie Dickason
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Harper & Collins, 2009
468p



Elizabeth is the daughter of King James VI of Scotland who after the death of Elizabeth I succeeded to the English throne as James I. Unpopular in England, the story begins with the infamous Gunpowder Plot, an attempt to dethrone him in favour of his children Elizabeth and her brother Henry.

Elizabeth is only 9 but from that time she becomes aware of her father's distrust and suspicions and how she will have to struggle to find any hope of a happy future.

Very little is known about this period in Elizabeth's life but the author has created a very likeable and spirited young girl. Surrounded by women who are less than kind and with their own personal agendas she has only herself and Henry to rely on until she is given an Ethiopian slave girl, Tallie, destined to become her close friend and confidante........some one who will tell her the truth whether she likes it or not. Tallie is pure fiction but her presence provides a means for Elizabeth to express her real thoughts and emotions.

One was the daughter of a king; the other a slave. Both were for sale.

Who her father will 'sell' her off to is the permanent cloud that hangs over Elizabeth's head subjecting her to hours of humiliating scrutiny - Ten pairs of adult male eyes, including my father's chilly gaze, stared at me as if I were a greyhound or horse for sale - -and more long periods of standing while portraits are painted for those who can't attend personally including this one in 1606 by Robert Peake which is obviously the inspiration for a passage in the book.
This little girl is only 10 and seems to have been done up to look like a miniature Queen Elizabeth I ......' my hair had been tortured upward into a great domed sugar loaf in an attempt to make me look regal. I thought it made me look like a startled acorn.

While facts about Elizabeth may be scarce there is a great deal more known about many of the other characters. The strange, emotionally flawed James, the petulant Baby Charles (later Charles I), the king's favourite boy Robert Carr and the conniving Frances Howard, Robert Cecil and Francis Bacon all come vividly to life and against a well described background of London and Whitehall add historical substance. Most of the story is told in the first person by Elizabeth but there are also short first person pieces from some of these other characters throughout which adds interest and another viewpoint.

The story ends in 1613 with Elizabeth newly married to the Elector Palatine, Frederick V, and preparing to set sail to her new life. Her later life was to prove more eventful which leaves me wondering if, and hoping that , Christie Dickason plans a sequel.

Easy to read,entertaining and absorbing , I enjoyed this book very much.

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