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Captive Queen: The Decrypted History of Mary Queen of Scots
Captive Queen: The Decrypted History of Mary Queen of Scots
Jade Scott | 2024 | History & Politics
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Tudor England has always been a favourite subject of mine, and then on to the Elizabethan period as well. It’s always interested me how Elizabeth I treated her cousin, Mary Queen of Scots, especially after I visited Carlisle Castle and saw some of the displays that explained her captivity there. It may have only been a few weeks out of the 19 years that she was held captive, and I was curious about the rest of those years.

Captive Queen explains a lot of Mary’s life and also tells of how she got to the point of her imprisonment. So much information was gleaned from the encrypted letters that she sent to, and received from, her supporters. When they were decrypted, after their discovery in a French archive, they answered a lot of questions.

Jade Scott uses this information to paint a really interesting picture of Mary’s captivity, and just how involved she was in the various plots to release her and put her on the English throne. I mean, who can blame her?! She was imprisoned in some awful places - regardless of the fact that she was in castles or stately homes.

I rather enjoyed the little fictional chapter headers. They made it feel more personal, and ideal for people like me who don’t always enjoy dry, academic historical writing. This is absolutely not that - I whizzed through this book, thoroughly enjoying it.

So, if you enjoy history and want to find out more about Mary, Queen of Scots, you may well enjoy this too.
  
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Suswatibasu (1703 KP) rated The Nix in Books

Dec 4, 2017  
The Nix
The Nix
Nathan Hill | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Glorious, extravagant, epic family saga
It's hardly surprising Meryl Streep has bought the rights to this debut novel by Nathan Hill, which explores relations amongst several generations of a family.

It spans nearly fifty years, with flashbacks to student protests during 1968, from the present day, and the travails of an academic, struggling to engage with lazy and disaffected students, and playing ‘Elfscape’, an online role-playing game that works along the lines of World of Warcraft. The narrative perspective moves around quite a bit in the first few chapters, but a strong theme quickly emerges.

Samuel Andresen-Anderson is the principal protagonist, and is a genuinely empathetic character. Far from perfect, he is beset with irritations, ranging from the cheating and ignorance of many of his students to the family upheaval suffered during his childhood, which still troubles him more than twenty years later.

Behind all this is the story of Faye, Samuel’s mother, who walked out on her family more than twenty years earlier, and who is catapulted into the public consciousness following a sudden impulsive act. This offered Hill the opportunity for some acute observations about the motives and actions of the student rebels from the late 1960s, while also exposing the hypocrisies of the establishment and the cruelties of some of the police during those troubles. In between, the author even delves into Norwegian folklore.

The writing is fine – clear and accessible - and Hill manages the complex storylines admirably. Moving backwards and forwards between the late 1960s, late 1980s and 2011, the plot never flags. This was a long novel, but very entertaining throughout.
  
Show all 3 comments.
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Suswatibasu (1703 KP) Dec 4, 2017

Thanks @Sarah! I've already been inspired by some of your suggestions such as Libby! Did you like Solaris?

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Sarah (7800 KP) Dec 5, 2017

I did enjoy it, I'll be honest though I didn't even know it was anything other than a film until i saw your review!

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