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Philippa Gregory


MuggleMagic

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The White Queen tells the story of Elizabeth Woodville as she goes from a common woman and rises to the greatest position of all; Queen of England and then fights for the rights of her children. She is the Mother of the Princes in the Tower, the little boys that went missing and were never seen again. Their bodies were never found and the mystery of what happened to them still baffles historians to this day.

 

I feel like Philippa Gregory lost it a little bit with The Other Queen and The Boleyn Inheritance but she is back on top form with The White Queen.

 

I know nothing about The War of the Roses and yet again Philippa Gregory provided me with an interesting and fun way of learning.

 

It really is brillaint. I cannot wait for the next one to come out :friends0:

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'm looking forward to getting my hands on this one.

 

(I'm glad I'm not the only one who learns through historical fiction :) )

 

I haven't read anything at all from this period and as I love Philippa Gregory's style and they way she brings characters to life, I'm sure this one will be a winner.

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This is on my wish list :)

 

I visited the Tower of London over the summer so discovered a little bit about the two princes while I was there. It'd be good to learn a bit more about it. I too love Phillipa Gregory's writing and I'm making my way through the Tudor Court novels at the moment :)

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  • 7 months later...

5971165.jpgSynopsis:

The White Queen
tells the story of a woman of extraordinary beauty and ambition who, catching the eye of the newly crowned boy king, marries him in secret and ascends to royalty. While Elizabeth rises to the demands of her exalted position and fights for the success of her family, her two sons become central figures in a mystery that has confounded historians for centuries: the missing princes in the Tower of London whose fate is still unknown. From her uniquely qualified perspective, Philippa Gregory explores this most famous unsolved mystery of English history, informed by impeccable research and framed by her inimitable storytelling skills.

This is the first book in Gregory's Civil War series. The story follows Elizabeth who marries the new king in secret. At first she is just a young widow in love. She soon realises that this will not be an easy marriage - with the court unhappy about the marriage and brothers going to war against each other. She has to rely on her wit - and a bit of magic to protect herself and her family, while people plot to overthrow her family and even kill them.

I enjoyed Gregory's Tudor series and was really looking forward to reading this. And I was not let down - I loved it. Gregory writes wonderful historical novels. She does her research well and I never feel like she has made a massive mistake - it always seems realistic and accurate.

Alongside that, she writes a great storyline and great characters. This story is full of adventure, magic, deception and war. Gregory doesn't pussyfoot around war and the horrors of it, especially back in the middle ages. She writes a gripping tale and wonderful descriptions. We see the battlefield, them hiding in the Tower and in sanctuary in a crypt by the river. So much happened, and it was great reading.

 

My opinion of Elizabeth changed as the story wore on. At first I liked her - she was young and in love, but the Court got to her and she became determined and headstrong. She was focused on keeping her position as Queen, even if this upset her children and left them isolated without allies. I didn't like her new character but it felt realistic, power goes to her head. I didn't particular like Edward her husband. He too was over ambitious. That said, it made for a fantastic read.

I was hooked. Gregory writes exception historical novels that are well worth reading. This one gets top marks from me.

5-stars-300x61.jpg

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I've just finished The Red Queen and found it to be my favourite book by Philippa Gregory (not that I'm her biggest fan). It is about Margaret Beaufort, the mother of Henry VII. I recommend watching "The trial of Richard III" after you have read the book. It is a 4 hour "trial" of Richard III on the charge of murdering the princes in the Tower (broadcast by Channel 4 in 1984). Quite interesting. It features David Starkey as a prosecution witness.

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I finished this book this morning and thoroughly enjoyed it. :) It's my first foray into Philippa Gregory's works and I am definitely going to buy The Red Queen when it comes out in paperback. It's such an easy writing, and therefore reading, style.

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I finished The White Queen last week and really enjoyed it. I do love Philippa Gregory and the Tudor history anyway but my knowledge of the War of the Roses was sketchy. I think this has given me the incentive to do a bit more background reading into Richard III, the book certainly offers a different opinion on him.

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  • 6 months later...

(I'm glad I'm not the only one who learns through historical fiction :) )

 

I am another reader who uses Philippa Gregory as a history teacher. She writes about the things that I wanted to learn about when I was at school. I had to do iron and ice ages and then the 1920's.

 

Although this is probably one of my least favourite PG books I am still glad I read it as all I knew previously was there were once two princes in a tower full stop.

 

I have The Red Queen waiting to be read.

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  • 4 months later...

I haven't read any of that yet, but I think I will sooner or later!

It sounds really interresting.

 

Their bodies were never found and the mystery of what happened to them still baffles historians to this day.

 

I think, I've read some weeks ago, that they did find the bodies some decades ago.

But there has never been any proper reaserch allowed. Not that it would matter that much, though.

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I'm reading The Kingmakers Daughter.....next after The Red Queen, and I love the way all three books dovetail in their telling of the same story.  Fascinating.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Have read The White Queen and The Kingmaker's Daughter. Am almost finished The Red Queen.

 

I loaned both The White Queen and The Kingmaker's Daughter to mum in law and she liked The Kingmaker's Daughter but she found The White Queen harder to get into or enjoy. Me, I enjoyed both and am so far enjoying The Red Queen.

 

Am I the only one who thinks Margaret Beaufort is vain in her beliefs about herself?

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Are the series on BBC historically accurate?

The books and series are partly accurate and partly not. The writer (Philippa Gregory) had to imagine the motives, thoughts and conversations, as well as some of the more intimate situations, obviously, but many of the salient historical facts are present and correct. Gregory's books (and the resulting series) are more a blend of fact and fiction than straight fact.

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The books and series are partly accurate and partly not. The writer (Philippa Gregory) had to imagine the motives, thoughts and conversations, as well as some of the more intimate situations, obviously, but many of the salient historical facts are present and correct. Gregory's books (and the resulting series) are more a blend of fact and fiction than straight fact.

 

Thank you. I'm just reading the book and it's better than BBC series anyway :-)

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I started reading The White Queen as the series started on BBC and I ended up really liking it. For some reason I always have this idea that I'm going to find PG's books really hard to get into but it's never the case.

 

The book was much better than the series I thought, and I now have The Red Queen on my list to read, although, I didnt like Margaret in the series as a character so I'm kind of thinking I wont like the Red Queen much - again, I will most likely change my mind once I actually start reading the book.

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I started reading The White Queen as the series started on BBC and I ended up really liking it. For some reason I always have this idea that I'm going to find PG's books really hard to get into but it's never the case.

 

The book was much better than the series I thought, and I now have The Red Queen on my list to read, although, I didnt like Margaret in the series as a character so I'm kind of thinking I wont like the Red Queen much - again, I will most likely change my mind once I actually start reading the book.

 

I believe you'll see Margaret in a bit of a different light after reading The Red Queen.  Even though I didn't end up liking her, I felt far more sympathy for her view of things by the end of the book.  Some of the things she went through were truly horrific.  And she did sacrifice a great deal for her beliefs.

It is great the way three of the books are written about the same time frame, but told by different side of the bias.  Fascinating. 

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  • 4 months later...

Can't say I like Margaret as a person, either. I thought she was too judgemental and critical of others, but I had to admire her singleminded determination to get her son on the throne ... not that he ever had any choice in the matter! :D

 

Happy New Year to all members and staff here -  and may 2014 bring us all many hours of reading pleasure.

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