Review: Medieval Royal Mistresses by Julia Hickey

Synopsis: Marriage for Medieval kings was about politics, power and the provision of legitimate heirs. Mistresses were about love, lust and possession. It was a world that included kidnap, poison, murder, violation, public shaming and accusations of witchcraft. Ambition and quick wits as well as beauty were essential attributes for any royal mistress. Infamy, assassination and imprisonment awaited some royal mistresses who tumbled from favour whilst others disappeared into obscurity or respectable lives as married women and were quickly forgotten.

Meet Nest of Wales, born in turbulent times, whose abduction started a war; Alice Perrers and Jane Shore labelled ‘whores’ and ‘wantons’; Katherine Swynford who turned the medieval world upside down with a royal happy-ever-after and Rosamund Clifford who left history and stepped into legend.

Discover how serial royal womanisers married off their discarded mistresses to bind their allies close. Explore the semi-official roles of some mistresses; the illegitimate children who became kings; secret marriage ceremonies; Edith Forne Sigulfson and Lady Eleanor Talbot who sought atonement through religion as well as the aristocratic women who became the victims of royal lust.

Most of the shameful women who shared the beds of medieval kings were silenced, besmirched or consigned to the footnotes of a patriarchal worldview but they negotiated paths between the private and public spheres of medieval court life - changing history as they went.

My views on this book are conflicting. On the one hand, kudos for seeking out some of the lesser known historical women and providing something despite there being very little to go on in some instances. But on the other hand, this really has provided nothing that a good google search could not turn up. On the one hand, there is an interesting selection of mistresses; yet on the other, they are tried and true selections with a number of inclusions I found myself questioning as to their inclusion at all.

I found the subtitle not only deceiving and infuriating but rather trite - "Mischievous Women who Slept with Kings and Princes" . Where were these vamps and ingenues, these Mata Haris who plied their wares before all manner of royalty, these saucy and salacious bawds who managed to seduce and satiate royal carnal desires all for gain. Cue Sid James and the Carry-On gang - disappointingly no. If the focus was to bring these women to the fore, calling them "shameful" from the very outset does nothing to further that aim.

Beginning in the late 10th century with Canute and finishing off with the last Plantagenet King Edward IV, we are treated to not only a history lesson but also a rather dry series of biographies. Hickey repeats all the usual rumours, innuendos and scandals, providing very little by way of anything new. The selections are narrowly focused on and in the British Isles - the side trip to France seemed out of place. As I mentioned before, there were a number of inclusions that really should not have been there at all as there were no sufficient proofs, and then there were the generalisations where names were unknown.

What I was looking for and yet found lacking was any real exploration of the role of the royal mistress. Many of these women had no choice in this - women were chattels - property of first their fathers then husbands, and ultimately of their direct lord; very few were able to assert the independence of thought and action that many of us can do today. It is a shame that through a lack of any detailed accounts of many, their lives are seen only as a mere footnote in the pages of the lives of the men with whom they were associated.

This tome is not overly long, however, the material contained therein was not sufficient to keep me fully engaged. Being extremely well read on much of the content already, I was looking for that little something more - that new take, some new theory or thoughts, even some small snippet of of the promise of something new. The phrase quality not quantity comes to mind in this instance - we know you have done your due diligence, but there is no need to cram it all into one space as it shows that you really don't know what to do with it all.

I am sure that there is a market for this and there will be many who will enjoy this immensely, unfortunately, I am not to be one of them.

Review: The Woodville Women by Sarah Hodder

Synopsis: Elizabeth Woodville, queen to Edward IV and mother of the Princes in the Tower.

Elizabeth of York, daughter of Elizabeth Woodville and the first Tudor queen of England.

Elizabeth Grey, granddaughter of Elizabeth Woodville and Countess of Kildare, whose life both in England and across the Irish sea was closely entwined with the Tudor Court.

This is the tale of three generations of women, linked by their name, Elizabeth, and by their family relationship. The story begins in the reign of the great Plantagenet Kings with the life of Elizabeth Woodville and ends in the reign of perhaps England’s most famous dynasty, that of the Tudor kings and queens. Through the life of Elizabeth of York, the first Tudor queen and Elizabeth Grey, cousin to Henry VIII and Mary Tudor, we explore the Tudor court and its dealings with the Earls of Kildare.

From the birth of our first Elizabeth to the death of our last, these three women lived through wars and coronations, births and deaths, celebration and tragedy and between them they experienced some of the most exciting and troubled times in English history. Mother, daughter and granddaughter: individually they each have their own fascinating story to tell; together their combined stories take us on a journey through a century of English life.

Okay - so what did I think. Well, what I had hoped for was a bit more about the Woodville Women - not just three Elizabeths. Whilst it is fairly obvious that there was a lot of research involved, the application could have done with some finessing. It is a very pro-Tudor piece, covering the usual myths, rumours and tropes, interspersed with assumption and supposition.

The first part deals some background including that of the period in which these women lived; Elizabeth Woodville's mother, Jacquetta of Luxembourg; the potential (and I stress potential) household dynamics, with a whole of lot of myth (including the legend of Melusine) and repeated referencing the works of Christine de Pizan. Whilst there is some merit to this introductory chapter, there is much that should have been left out.

The second part looks at mother and daughter - Elizabeth Woodville and Elizabeth Plantagenet - both queens of England, before the final part deals with Elizabeth Grey - though interesting in her own right, a rather curious choice.

Whilst we began with Jacquetta, and followed this with her daughter, granddaughter, and great granddaughter, as I mentioned, I was looking for a few more female family members. The inclusion of Elizabeth Woodville's sisters and nieces would have fleshed this out to present a more rounded overview of this particular familial branch of women. It is clear, however, that these three main women - four if we include, as we should - Jacquetta - managed to navigate the male dominated political world of their own times, to ensure that their place in it would not go unnoticed nor unremarked.

I would suggest that before diving head first into this tome, a little preemptive research of your own would be recommended.

Review: Marple: Twelve New Stories

Synopsis: A brand-new collection of short stories featuring the Queen of Mystery’s legendary detective Jane Marple, penned by twelve remarkable bestselling and acclaimed authors.

This collection of a dozen original short stories, all featuring Jane Marple, will introduce the character to a whole new generation. Each author reimagines Agatha Christie’s Marple through their own unique perspective while staying true to the hallmarks of a traditional mystery.

Miss Marple was first introduced to readers in a story Agatha Christie wrote for The Royal Magazine in 1927 and made her first appearance in a full-length novel in 1930’s The Murder at the Vicarage. It has been 45 years since Agatha Christie’s last Marple novel, Sleeping Murder, was published posthumously in 1976, and this collection of ingenious new stories by twelve Christie devotees will be a timely reminder why Jane Marple remains the most famous fictional female detective of all time.

Nice little addition to my Agatha Christie library, with some very different takes on the original Miss Marple.

I really enjoyed each author's own personal style when I can to including such a well-known character into their own stories, and it was great to see the inclusion of some familiar characters and locations.

The Authors & Their Stories:

Lucy Foley: Evil In Small Places
Jane visits an old school friend.

Val McDermid: The Second Murder at the Vicarage
Harkens back to the original "Murder in the Vicarage" with the same characters making another appearance. Another murder is committed, the victim being one of the original characters.

Alyssa Cole: Miss marple Takes Manhattan
Miss Marple is in Manhattan with her nephew Raymond West when a murder in one of the off Broadway theatres takes place, just as one of Raymond's books is about to premier as a play.

Natalie Haynes: The Unravelling
Miss Marple is involved in a murder in a village where an impersonation takes place.

Ruth Ware: Miss Marple's Christmas
Jane is celebrating Christmas in St Mary Meade at the Bantrys. However, deception and fraud are unwelcome gifts.

Naomi Alderman: The Open Mind
Attending a dinner at St Bede's College, Jane is witness to a poisoning of a greatly disliked man and a journalist. Long lost letters provide a clue.

Jean Kwok: the Jade Empress
Jane is on a cruise ship to Hong Kong to meet her nephew Raymond. A death of a passenger reveals a family secret.

Dreda Say Mitchell: A Deadly Wedding Day
Death of a wedding guests. Jane teams ups with Ms Bella, a local sleuth of the Caribbean community.

Elly Griffiths: Murder at the Villa Rosa
On the Italian Amalfi Coast, a writer contemplates the murder of his main character.

Karen McManus: The Murdering Sort
Nicola West (granddaughter of Raymond West) and her friend Diana Westever encounter the death of a rich old man.

Kate Mosse: The Mystery of the Acid Soil
Miss Marple meets a friend and a curate shortly after WWII. There is a murder in the village.

Leigh Bardugo: The Disappearance
Jane stay with her nephew Raymond for the summer. However, Dolly Bantry calls Jane back to St Mary Meade to solve the disappearance of one of Gossington Hall's new tennants. Dolly Bantry is at the heart of the mystery.

I cannot say how much I enjoyed their mini homages to Agatha and Jane.  As I said, a great addition to my own Agatha Christie Library!

Review: The Loki Sword by Angus Donald

Synopsis: An ancient blade, fit for the gods but tainted with a deadly curse. Bjarki Bloodhand has finally managed to subdue his gandr, the spirit that gives him the ferocity of a bear in battle. Yet losing his berserker prowess may leave him at the mercy of his foes.

Meanwhile, his half-sister, the shield maiden Tor Hildarsdottir, has slain two warriors from the personal retinue of the new Jarl of Norrland – and now faces brutal reprisals for their deaths.

Valtyr Far-Traveller claims he has a solution to their problems: a long voyage south to the wild Slav lands to find a fabled lost sword said to once belong to the Norse trickster god.

The journey will prove more perilous than anything Bjarki or Tor has ever attempted before. Can all three heroes hope to survive the desperate hunt for... The Loki Sword?

This third instalment in the Fire Born saga sees our intrepid trio - Bjarki, Tor and Valtyr - go in search of the famed Loki Sword. The epic takes place around Silesia and Prussia, with their enemies - the Black Cloaks - or Franks, hard on their heels at every turn. Will our adventurers and their motley band succeed in their quest or fall victim to betrayal and conspiracy?

As usual, Angus Donald imbues his books in the history and mythology of the period, creating an insight into 8th Century northern European world, whilst at the same time, propelling (and projecting) the reader, full body, into the story.

Review: Jack The Ripper - The Policeman by Rod Beattie

Synopsis: Imagine you were a police officer and had been dominated as a child by an abusive mother who didn’t really want you and as an adult had been served bastardy orders twice, firstly by a woman in whose house you lived and then by a woman you had a relationship with.

Then, to top it all after you had become a police officer in another city you arrested a woman you thought was a prostitute, whose subsequent actions caused you to be accused of perjury and you ended up in court at the Old Bailey. Although you were found not guilty, it ruined your career and left you seriously in debt and though you were still a policeman you were taken off the streets and assigned to a menial job guarding a museum.

As a police officer you were in a perfect position to take revenge on those people you thought had ruined you, prostitutes.

This book contains the complete reason Jack the Ripper came to be. It sheds new light on the mystery of the killer. After all, who is going to suspect a policeman going about his daily duties of being one of the world’s most infamous serial killers.

In this addition to the Ripper library, author Beattie posits his own thoughts on who Jack the Ripper could have been. In this instance, his prime suspect is a policeman, of dubious antecedents, by the name of Bowden Endacott.  And suspects a plenty have been suggested in the past of the list provided by Wikipedia is anything to go by - yet police office was not mentioned.

Beattie says that "... a police officer is the only person who could have walked the streets at night knowing that he would not be questioned or suspected of being the killer ...".  In fact, this is a most plausible scenario.

His reasons for putting forth Endacott as his suspect are numerous and include factors of his childhood (a domineering mother and possibly, unwanted as being one of her last children); his being a compulsive liar; dubious police career which culminated in the "Cass Case" of 1887.

Beattie then put forward that in addition to the five traditionally accepted Ripper victims, that at least one, if not more victoims could be attributed to him - whilst at the same time, suggesting that Stride was not one of the five.  Beattie also suspects that Endacott had an accomplice, possibly a doctor or at the very least, another man.  Again, this is a reasonable assumption, regardless of the true suspect and was worthy of more study.

Unfortunately, Beattie offers no real conclusive proofs - in fact, his case could literally have been made for any police officer who walked the beat at that particular time.  Endacott just had more notoriety due in no part to the Cass Case and his consistent and blatant lying.  Beattie failed to convince me that Endacott was the most plausable suspect.

What I would have preferred is more substantial proofs against Endacott to convey Beattie's argument or at the very least, for Beattie to have developed and put forth a more-detailed case built around the potential of a police officer being the suspect.