The Lady Elizabeth - Alison Weir

While I was waiting at Sydney airport at the beginning of Sept to head off on our trip I was browsing the book selections at the airport newsagency and discovered The Lady Elizabeth. I had just finished The Virgin's Lover and was keen to keep reading about Elizabeth I - even in fiction form. I had read some of Alison Weir's non-fiction before - The Six Wives of Henry VIII - and I thought her research and attention to detail was brilliant. Unfortunately I didn't love her fiction as much as her non-fiction.

The Lady Elizabeth covers the period of Elizabeth's life from her birth until the time she becomes Queen after the death of her sister, Mary. I really enjoyed the start and the end of this novel but I felt the middle section played out, and read, like a very bad soap opera. This middle section of the book fictionalises and imagines an intimate relationship between the young Elizabeth and a man who may or may not have played this part in her life. In the Author's Note at the end of the book Alison Weir talks about this section and why she wrote it in the way she did;

I make no apology for the fact that, for dramatic purposes, I have woven into my story a tale that goes against all my instincts as a historian! Indeed, I have argued many times in the past, in print, in lectures and on radio and television, why I firmly believe that Elizabeth I was the Virgin Queen she claimed to be, since the historical evidence would appear to support that.

I really think this tale for "dramatic purpose" actually detracts from the novel and makes it weaker than it otherwise needed to be. The narrative of this section feels forced and faked and it was where I lost track of where the story was heading. Weir does bring the story back to focus on Elizabeth and her strengths at the end but for me it felt like it was a little too late.

I am still looking for more books about Elizabeth I (fiction or non-fiction) - does anyone have any to suggest that they have really enjoyed??

The Virgin's Lover - Philippa Gregory

This was actually a book I finished quite a while ago now - just before we left for our trip. I had read another Philippa Gregory book, The Other Boleyn Girl, earlier in the year and while I wasn't exactly in love with it I did enjoy the light style and the ease with which I was able to read it. In the days leading up to going away my brain was finding it very hard to concentrate on anything too in depth and I did want to read books set in the areas in which we were travelling to which is why I picked up The Virgin's Lover.

Queen Elizabeth I is one of my favourite historical figures - not really sure why, she just always comes across as such a strong, independent woman at a time when that must have been extremely difficult to uphold. The Virgin's Lover tells the story of Elizabeth shortly after she becomes Queen and her friendship/relationship with Sir Robert Dudley develops. Historical writing and research seems divided on whether or not there was actually a sexual relationship between the two but literature and films of the modern age seem to jump to the idea that they could have and taken it for a spin.

The Virgin's Lover is no exception and the author in this case really brings home her interpretation of the relationship, in my mind to the detriment of the development of Elizabeth's strong character. I did enjoy reading the book but it certainly isn't a feminist portrayal of Elizabeth's story - something that is important to me in my reading of this woman, fiction or not.

In fact, women as a gender don't really do too well in this book, Sir Robert's neglected and poorly treated wife, Amy, doesn't end up well either and although her behaviour was probably typical and appropriate for married women of that era it really bothered me to read her story in this way.

Having said that I am still quite keen to read Gregory's new novel, The White Queen which focuses on the War of the Roses period of English history. Has anyone read this one yet? If so, how does it compare to Gregory's earlier novels?