Assassination of an Empress Elisabeth von Wittelsbach (Sisi) Even before the death of her son, the Crown Prince Rudolf, in 1889, Empress Elisabeth of Austria had retreated into a life of sport, travel and poetry. But there was a morbidity in her thoughts too. In 1887, she wrote: I flee from the world and all …
Category: Women in History
Sisi
Looking back, I see that I wrote the following two critiques in 2014. Empress Elisabeth of Austria is a historical figure I very much enjoy reading (and writing) about and, indeed, since penning these articles, I have read a few other works in which she features, regrettably not all as good as Brigitte Hamann's biography. …
Hamnet
by Maggie O'Farrell 'A boy is coming down a flight of stairs. The passage is narrow and twists back on itself. He takes each step slowly....' After The Tale of Genji, Hamnet is a nice, easy read. Based on the life, and death, of the only son of William Shakespeare, it is a fictionalised account …
The Tale of Genji
by Murasaki Shikibu English translation by Arthur Waley ‘At the court of an emperor (he lived it matters not when) there was among the many gentlewomen of the Wardrobe and Chamber one, though she was not of very high rank was favored far beyond all the rest.’ For a reader in the West, The …
Stormbird
by Conn Iggulden (Wars of the Roses) Set in England and France during the years after 1443, Stormbird is best described as an historical thriller. It has a large cast of characters, most of them real people, though the author, by his own admission, takes the odd liberty with them. The novel's main historical theme …
The Road to Bosworth Field
The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory A Review ' "You are a girl; girls have no choice. You could never choose your own husband; you are of the royal family .... It is forbidden for one of royal blood to marry their own choice." ' Margaret Beaufort knows she is chosen by God for a …
Tidelands
by Philippa Gregory A Review 'This was the walking night for the dead, this night and their saints' days; but she did not think her drunken violent husband had been under the care of any particular saint.' Alinor Reekie scratches out a living for herself and her children Rob and Alys in the marshlands of …
The Five
by Hallie Rubenhold The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper 'The victims of Jack the Ripper were never "just prostitues"; they were daughters, wives, mothers, sisters and lovers. They were women. They were human beings, and surely that, in itself, is enough.' During the late summer of 1888, death stalked the …
The Confession
by Jessie Burton A Review 'I was fourteen when I killed my mother.' Elise Morceau is twenty years old in 1980 when she meets thirty-five-year-old novelist Constance Holden in London. They embark on a love affair. One of Constance's novels is being made into a movie and Constance takes Elise with her to Hollywood to …
The Art of Dying
by Ambrose Parry A Review 'The Reverend struck me again ...... It was what happened when you ate filth.' The Art of Dying reacquaints the reader with Dr Will Raven and Sarah Fisher, protagonists of Ambrose Parry's first novel, The Way of All Flesh. Now fully qualified, Raven returns to Edinburgh from a study tour …
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