Ever Heard of This Book?

Vanessa · Post by **Vanessa** » Mon September 1st, 2008, 10:41 am

Has anyone heard of Annette Motley? I bought a second hand copy of The Quickenberry Tree by this author at a village fair recently. The story is set in the English Civil War. I don't know what it's like, it could be a load of tish tosh, but the writing looks OK.

I've also acquired some books by Liz Curtis Higgs, rewritings of bible stories but set in the 18thC. Anyone read anything by this author?

EC2 · Post by **EC2** » Mon September 1st, 2008, 11:32 am

Annette Motley was - and maybe still is an excellent writer of line straddling historical fiction (as in straddling the line between romance and straight historical in the style of Roberta Gellis or Anya Seton). She wrote My Lady's Crusade - about a woman who joins the 3rd crusade and goes in search of her missing husband. Also Sins of the Lion about a Renaissance slave girl who rises to become her master's beloved. Sounds a bit Bertrice Smallish - but it isn't. I haven't heard about her in a long while though.

Telynor · Post by **Telynor** » Mon September 1st, 2008, 1:02 pm

[quote=""Vanessa""]Has anyone heard of Annette Motley? I bought a second hand copy of The Quickenberry Tree by this author at a village fair recently. The story is set in the English Civil War. I don't know what it's like, it could be a load of tish tosh, but the writing looks OK. [/quote]

I've read My Lady's Crusade, and Green Dragon, White Tiger set in seventh century China about the Empress Wu. Her writing tends to be on the lightish side, but compared to a lot of what's out there, not bad at all.

Ariadne · Post by **Ariadne** » Mon September 1st, 2008, 2:19 pm

[quote=""Vanessa""]I've also acquired some books by Liz Curtis Higgs, rewritings of bible stories but set in the 18thC. Anyone read anything by this author?[/quote]

I've read her first three novels (Thorn in My Heart, Fair Is the Rose, Whence Came a Prince) and enjoyed them tremendously, though I never really warmed to two of the main characters. They need to be read in order. The first book is a real tearjerker!

Vanessa · Post by **Vanessa** » Mon September 1st, 2008, 4:11 pm

[quote=""EC2""]Annette Motley was - and maybe still is an excellent writer of line straddling historical fiction (as in straddling the line between romance and straight historical in the style of Roberta Gellis or Anya Seton). She wrote My Lady's Crusade - about a woman who joins the 3rd crusade and goes in search of her missing husband. Also Sins of the Lion about a Renaissance slave girl who rises to become her master's beloved. Sounds a bit Bertrice Smallish - but it isn't. I haven't heard about her in a long while though.[/quote]

Oooh, right, thanks for that! When I was flicking through it, the style of writing looked good (I was trying to see whether it was one of those 'And he looked meaningfully into her starlit eyes, he slung her over his horse and dashed off into the sunset' sort of book! LOL) and as it was only 50p, I thought I'd give it a go. I haven't heard of this author. Searching on Amazon, etc, there doesn't seem to be anything recent by her or any 'blurbs' either. It did bring to mind an old 'Cavalier and Roundhead' film, the title of which I can't for the life of me remember.

Vanessa · Post by **Vanessa** » Mon September 1st, 2008, 4:13 pm

[quote=""Ariadne""]I've read her first three novels (Thorn in My Heart, Fair Is the Rose, Whence Came a Prince) and enjoyed them tremendously, though I never really warmed to two of the main characters. They need to be read in order. The first book is a real tearjerker![/quote]

Thanks. The books I say don't actually say in which order they should be read, so I should read Thorn in My Heart first, etc? I think I'll pencil it in the inside front cover so I don't forget.

Ariadne · Post by **Ariadne** » Mon September 1st, 2008, 4:34 pm

[quote=""Vanessa""]Thanks. The books I say don't actually say in which order they should be read, so I should read Thorn in My Heart first, etc? I think I'll pencil it in the inside front cover so I don't forget.[/quote]

Yep, that's the right order. The novels won't make much sense if you read them out of order because they read like one long novel (though each shows the viewpoint of a different character as the story continues).

Vanessa · Post by **Vanessa** » Mon September 1st, 2008, 6:43 pm

Ah, right, so do they follow on like the stories in the Bible, a bit like a family saga for want of a better way of putting it? Not that I'm that knowledgeable with regards to bible stories, just what I remember from school and Sunday School as a child. The books do look very good, I like reworkings of old tales.

Ariadne · Post by **Ariadne** » Mon September 1st, 2008, 7:23 pm

Yup! Although in this case, the storyline pretty much stays within the same generation. It retells the biblical story of the Jacob-Leah-Rachel triangle in 18th-c Scotland. Higgs gets around the bigamy issue in an interesting way. There's a 4th book, Grace in Thine Eyes, that retells the story of Dinah (with the next generation).

Ariadne · Post by **Ariadne** » Fri November 13th, 2009, 3:27 pm

Has anyone else heard of, or read, Ira J. Morris's A Kingdom for a Song? I just came across it on my bookshelf. I'm wondering if it's based on historical characters or if the author made everything up. If the latter, the strange thing is how many specifics are given about various royal families. It's set in medieval France, and it starts out with the marriage of Isabel, the king's daughter, being negotiated with Charles, Duke of Burgundy. Previously she had been married as a child to Don Carlos of Castile, who had gone mad and subsequently died. Charles, in this book, is the son of someone nicknamed the "Wolf of Burgundy" and his much younger wife, Joan/Juana of Navarre. There's a note at the beginning saying that the characters are fictitious, but I've seen that before with historical novels. I can't match these people with their historical counterparts (which may not exist) and am confused.