What are you reading? November 2013

Vanessa · Post by **Vanessa** » Fri November 15th, 2013, 6:54 pm

[quote=""Brenna""]Still making my way through The Queen Mother by William Shawcross. Just got to the abdication so I still have a way to go...[/quote]

I have that on my TBR pile. Any good?

annis · Post by **annis** » Fri November 15th, 2013, 6:59 pm

Dan Jones' The Plantagenets (NF)- I seem to have been spending quite a bit of time with the fictional ones lately so thought I'd get a more in-depth look at them. DJ is very readable, though I note that some reviewers point out that he doesn't always get it right.

Nefret · Post by **Nefret** » Fri November 15th, 2013, 11:01 pm

Devil's Brood by Sharon Kay Penman

Two questions- was William Marshall really offered by his father to be hanged as part of some broken oath? And... did the big party for knights named William happen?

lauragill · Post by **lauragill** » Fri November 15th, 2013, 11:50 pm

I scored a copy of June Rachuy Brindel's Ariadne, but I don't dare read it until I finish writing Knossos. I thumbed through it, though, and it seems to be written along the lines of Jacquetta Hawkins's anthropological NF Dawn of the Gods, which pits mother-goddess vs. father-god. I'm not sure that Minoan religion/society was ever that black and white.

Berengaria · Post by **Berengaria** » Sat November 16th, 2013, 2:28 am

Am reading SKP's Falls the Shadow Finished the first in this series Here Be Dragons and was so thoroughly enthralled, I am going to read all of them!

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Sun November 17th, 2013, 1:44 am

The Boleyn Deceit by Laura Andersen

Number two in the alternative history series with the premise that Anne Boleyn gave birth to a healthy boy who would grow up to rule England.

Misfit · Post by **Misfit** » Sun November 17th, 2013, 2:20 am

[quote=""Susan""]The Boleyn Deceit by Laura Andersen

Number two in the alternative history series with the premise that Anne Boleyn gave birth to a healthy boy who would grow up to rule England.[/quote]

Still waiting for library copy to land. I hear there's some wild twists at the end.

Nefret · Post by **Nefret** » Sun November 17th, 2013, 3:54 am

I'm still reading Devil's Brood. Got through some of it today during the commercials of one of my favourite movies.

emr · Post by **emr** » Sun November 17th, 2013, 9:23 am

Sword at Sunset by Rosemary Sutcliff

EC2 · Post by **EC2** » Sun November 17th, 2013, 1:51 pm

[quote=""Nefret""]Devil's Brood by Sharon Kay Penman

Two questions- was William Marshall really offered by his father to be hanged as part of some broken oath? And... did the big party for knights named William happen?[/quote]

Answer 1: Yes, but there are a lot of caveats that aren't gone into. John Marshal was between a rock and a hard place. Hostages were demanded of him while he was given time to apply to his overlords for permission to hand over Newbury Castle. Except his overlords were in Normandy - effectively the future Henry II.
If John had yielded Newbury to Stephen, it would have left the road to Wallingford open, and Brian FitzCount was out of the picture at this time. The result of giving up Newbury would have been that Stephen would have piled through to Wallingford much earlier than he did and the entire Angevin house of cards would have tumbled. No Henry II on the throne for starters. What John's move did in reneging on his oath, was buy Henry the time he needed to get to England, just as holding hard at Wherwell and losing an eye, bought the Empress time to get clear of Winchester. But there were sacrifices. John nearly died at Wherwell, and lost an eye in the firefight. And could potentially have lost a son at Newbury. What is interesting when you read the primary sources is that despite being a hostage and that famous anvils and hammers speech, William was a valued child, and also King Stephen wasn't entirely the nice guy playing 'knights' with the little boy. There were many incidents where Stephen allowed little William to be threatened with death in front of Newbury's walls.
Bottom line: Yes it happened, but it's deeply nuanced and not all it seems on the surface, but you wouldn't know unless you dug down hard.

2. Yes, this really happened.

William was a very popular name.