Lady of the English by Elizabeth Chadwick

annis · Post by **annis** » Wed September 7th, 2011, 3:52 am

How annoying, Brenna. I've been buying stuff from both the States and the UK for years and I've never come across that issue, though I've heard people mention it in regards to buying for Kindle.

EC2 · Post by **EC2** » Wed September 7th, 2011, 10:05 am

[quote=""Brenna""]

I never meant to infer that you wrote anything to sensationalize the story!! I would never think that. It was just very surprising and unexpected and difficult to think of this strong, amazing woman having to go through this. Castor has a full bibliography in the back of her book. I can scan it for you tomorrow at work if you like and e-mail it. I haven't checked her website to see if there is anything on there.

[/quote]

I know you didn't Brenna

I think that strong and amazing as she was, she hit up against some very iron-willed and controlling men in her father (who I think was a great king for England, but was a mafia tyrant type at the same time. He was probably good to the women in his life providing they toed the line) and Geoffrey of Anjou. I suspect that as a youth inexperienced of life, that the only way he could control her strength of will was with violence and that it was also an expression of his frustration with her. A less assertive wife might have been safer.

I wouldn't mind seeing Castor's bibliography for the Matilda bit, but only if you have time and it's no trouble.

Brenna · Post by **Brenna** » Wed September 7th, 2011, 1:29 pm

I forgot the book this morning, but went back through the Castor book to see where she mentions Maude and Geoffrey's marriage. She is very careful to stay away from any specifics on their marriage but she alludes to Geoffrey's temper and Maude's stubborness and how that did not make a successful marriage. I will try and remember tomorow!

Miss Moppet · Post by **Miss Moppet** » Sat September 17th, 2011, 12:16 am

Just finished! Only wish it could have been twice the size. I would have liked to see more of Stephen and Maheut, follow Geoffrey when Matilda was away from him, etc, but aside from the length problem, that would have upset the balance between Matilda and Adeliza which I thought worked very well. Now brewing a review. A few questions:

EC2 · Post by **EC2** » Sat September 17th, 2011, 10:30 am

[quote=""Miss Moppet""]Just finished! Only wish it could have been twice the size. I would have liked to see more of Stephen and Maheut, follow Geoffrey when Matilda was away from him, etc, but aside from the length problem, that would have upset the balance between Matilda and Adeliza which I thought worked very well. Now brewing a review. A few questions:

[/quote]

Lengths are my bugbear. The most I can get away with in a novel is 165,000 and even then I get the slight shake of the head. I would have loved to develop those bits you mention a bit more. But then again, when you start developing side threads, as you say, you take the focus off your main story drive and then you can lose reader interest. You might say that with e-books length no longer matters, but that's an English-speaking centric way of looking at things. I am published worldwide and not all of the countries involved are up to speed on e-books or have the translations available, and paper is still very much king. Germany perhaps does, but this morning I just received some excellent royalties from Hungary, and they're not even a blip on the e-reader front. So size still matters if you are going out to obtain those all important overseas sales in far flung markets.

Misfit · Post by **Misfit** » Sat September 17th, 2011, 11:41 am

I have to agree there, as much as I'd like any Chadwick novel to go on forever. I've been reading a lot of older novels from the 80's and as much as I do enjoy them (the writing is so much better than a lot of the fluff coming out these days), most of them could do with a serious pruning. Look what happens when authors get too big for their editors. Jean Auel. Philippa Gregory. Eventually even the die hard fans will start rebelling.

Brenna · Post by **Brenna** » Sat September 17th, 2011, 12:37 pm

But then there are always SKP's tombs

annis · Post by **annis** » Sat September 17th, 2011, 8:28 pm

Posted by Brenna

But then there are always SKP's tombs

Oops, that's a potential fatal typo

Make that "tomes"?

Agreed about the older books, Misfit. I've just been reading Jessica Stirling's 1992 Lantern for the Dark, a story set in Georgian Glascow. Lots of fascinating detail about the 18th century Scottish legal system and social scene, but very long-winded. By the time I got to the end I was almost wishing they would hang the innocent heroine just to get it over and done with!

Brenna · Post by **Brenna** » Sun September 18th, 2011, 6:30 pm

Oh dear lord, I cannot believe I typed that. Blame it on the really bad cold medicine or my really bad spelling. Oy....

JMJacobsen · Post by **JMJacobsen** » Tue September 20th, 2011, 12:11 am

As much as I enjoy reading this forum, I don't often post but I just have to make a huge exception in the case of this novel.

Matilda has forever and a day been one of my "pet" historical people and I've read just about everything I have been able to get my hands on about her over the years. This is the first novel, though, that I've ever felt "captured" her essence....her faults, her strengths, her motivations. I'm just thrilled with it and think that finally someone hit the proverbial nail on the head.