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H is for Hawk
Book
Winner of the Costa Book of the Year Winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction As a...
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Makeshift and Hunger March: Two Novels by Dot Allan
Book
Makeshift, first published in 1928, deals with a young girl's adolescence and early adulthood in...
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Pilgrim's Way
Book
"Pilgrim's Way. An Essay on Recollection" by Scottish novelist and politician John Buchan...
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The Scots of Dalriada
Book
THREE BROTHERS Fergus, Loarn and Angus, Princes of the Dalriada, are forced into exile by their...
Historical Fiction
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Summerwater
Book
The Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller 'Sharp, searching, thoroughly imagined, utterly of the moment...
Contemporary Literary fiction Scotland
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ClareR (5779 KP) rated Young Queens: Three Renaissance Women and the Price of Power in Books
May 31, 2023
This book is about the lives of Catherine de’ Medici (married to the French Henry II), Elisabeth of Spain and Mary, Queen of Scots and how their lives wove together.
There are some really interesting facts here (Mary was nearly 6 feet tall - now THIS is the kind of fact I live for!). But it was the personal side that really interested me. Catherine loved her children fiercely even though she had little time with them. She wanted to know every detail of their lives. Her letters to Elisabeth when she went to Spain were filled with family gossip and instructions. Just the kind of stuff that any mother would send their daughter, and Elisabeth appeared to want to always make her mother proud.
Mary and Elisabeth were like sisters, so when Mary needed Elizabeth’s and Spain’s support when the Scottish Lords turned against her, it must have hurt her greatly when they refused to help.
What I liked most was having the opportunity to dip my toes in to the history of France and Spain. It sounded as tumultuous as our own.
I do think that I’m going to have to follow up on Cathrine de’ Medici, though. Now she sounds fascinating!
I’m so glad that I read this - thanks to The Pigeonhole!
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The Kingdoms
Book
Come home, if you remember The postcard has been held at the sorting office for ninety-one years,...
Historical fiction Time travel Alternate History
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Sky Song
Book
`Once an adventure digs its claws in, there is not an awful lot you can do about it. Especially when...
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The Bass Rock
Book
A modern gothic triumph. Spectacularly well-observed, profoundly disquieting and utterly riveting....
Historical fiction Scotland