She’s done
it again.
Philippa
Gregory isn’t known as the queen of historical fiction for nothing. In this,
the third part of her Cousins / War of the Roses series, she goes further back
in time than usual (and further back than either The White Queen or The Red Queen).
The Lady of the Rivers
introduces us to Jacquetta: young bride to the English regent of France, the
Duke of Bedford.
Descended
from Melusina, the fabled river goddess, Jacquetta has always had the gift of
‘sight’ – but, having watched Joan of Arc burned at the stake for witchcraft,
she understands only too well the dangers for a beautiful girl with intuitive
powers.
As she
grows into womanhood, Jacquetta rises to a prestigious place at the Lancaster
court of King Henry VI and Queen Margaret. But she must face both the swirling
threats of popular unrest and the more sinister machinations of royal rivals.
After a
terrible shock, the king slides into a mysterious sleep, his volatile and
easily influenced queen places her trust in scheming conspirators and
bloodthirsty thugs and Richard, the grand Duke of York, threatens to snatch
away the entire kingdom.
Fortunes
rise and fall, as this well-researched, well-conceived and sweeping epic
introduces us to the real-life mother of the White Queen. I loved this book but
then, I love all of Gregory’s books. So it’s important for me to issue this
disclaimer:
If you’re
a Gregory fan, and your favourite of her books is The Other Boleyn Girl, there’s a chance that this novel – and the
other Roses books – will prove too
historical and insufficiently fictional. But if you’re a die-hard consumer of
largely fact-based writing, or you’re passionate about the royals of yore and
yon, you’ll love it.
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