Queen's Fool by Philippa Gregory - Book Review

I picked this up from a second-hand bookshop in Bangalore, where they sell books by weight. ["Book Fair; where Austen's, Trollope's are sold 200 per kg. How time belittles the value of literature!"https://twitter.com/RamyaJP].

I wasn't excited much about it, just had to get it to balance the weight. But now here I am, reviewing it. The "Other Boleyn girl", by the same author, was a racy read. I had to read it to check the variations from "The Tudors" TV series by Michael Hirst. OBG was clearly an elaborate fictionalization of the Tudors history. I liked it. So OBG suggested Queen's Fool.

Coming now to Queen's fool, the main character is fictional, the rest are historical figures which keep you intrigued. The famous thing about historical fiction is that we know the plot beforehand but the process of arriving at it is the challenge. Gregory has mastered it well. The main character, Hannah Green is weak in the beginning, but the by the end of the novel she establishes herself as a great confidante and a strong woman. And guess what she is featured as a FEMINIST, even in that 16th century when women were told their right place was at home cooking and scouring pans. Feminism is something which keeps me alive, every time I pick up an argument I put some feminist points in it. I liked that fresh element in a medieval book. Could totally relate to it.

Queen Mary Tudor and Princess Elizabeth Tudor were portrayed in a completely different light, contradicting all that I had read about them. I thought Mary was the bit*h and Elizabeth the honourable. But just the opposite.

Final words, it was neither the unputdownable kind nor the dull one. It has a speed which was convenient for me to read between my chores and parenting. I have a tendency to delay the book climax to increase my guesswork. This book worked out perfectly well.