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ClareR (5879 KP) rated Captive Queen: The Decrypted History of Mary Queen of Scots in Books

Jun 14, 2025  
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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Patrisse Cullors recommended Fledgling in Books (curated)

 
Fledgling
Fledgling
Octavia E. Butler | 2005 | Science Fiction/Fantasy
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Favorite

"Octavia Butler is one of my top favorite authors, and my favorite sci-fi writer of all time. Her writing is always at the intersection of race, class — and in this instance, vampires. I love fantastical things, and because this focuses on vampires and not humans it adds another element of imagination. In the book, she’s having a conversation about racism, but through vampires, and you just never know where that’s going to go. You’re reading it, reading it, reading it, and then it takes a hard left, and you’re like Oh shit, I didn’t realize we were going to go into these deep political topics. Even though she always does that in her books. I’ve read pretty much all of them, but this was my favorite. She died pretty soon after she wrote it, so it has a lot of sentimental value for me."

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