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The King's Grey Mare

Author: Rosemary Hawley Jarman
Publisher: The History Press Ltd
Category: Book

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Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars

1 reviews
Sales Rank: 21090

Media: Paperback
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 4.8 x 0.9

ISBN: 0752445634
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780752445632
ASIN: 0752445634

Publication Date: April 4, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: This edition is published by tempus.We post daily from the uk,ref 070508fi

Also Available In:

•	Unknown Binding - King's Grey Mare
•	Unknown Binding - THE KING'S GREY MARE.
•	Hardcover - The King's Grey Mare

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Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars

"Thy lady hath forgotten to be kind..." May 13, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

The King's Grey Mare is a lovely, bewitching read even if you haven't read about the Wars of the Roses before; it's not as politics-focused as many other books dealing with this period.

The author says she wanted to portray Elizabeth neither as villain or victim. I think she succeeds in making Elizabeth a rounded character, although some of the actions ascribed to her in this novel are pretty awful. I was initially put off by the talk of "evil witches" on the back cover; the old witchery rumours are a bit of a cliche when it comes to La Woodville. Luckily, Rosemary Hawley Jarman is a better, more sensitive writer than whoever wrote the blurb for her book!

The first part of the book follows Elizabeth Woodville as a young girl, a lady-in-waiting at the court of Henry VI and Marguerite d'Anjou and a blissful young bride. Then she is sent home a widow, where her mother Jacquetta sets her sights on a new son-in-law, the new young Yorkist King. The young Elizabeth could be fiery when she had to be, but she often didn't have to be. But with grief closing over her and the obsession of revenge upon the Earl of Warwick, she becomes proud and ruthless. As Elizabeth becomes less and less sympathetic, we see more of Grace, Edward IV's illegitimate daughter, who is a kind of foil to Elizabeth. Grace is to fall in love with John of Gloucester, illegitimate son of Richard III, forming a touching sub-plot, but she can't help herself from loving Elizabeth.

What I loved most about this book was the author's style of writing. Her vocabulary is huge and she has a real eye for detail, as well as a knack for a pretty phrase. I've heard her style described as "flowery", and it's certainly not the more modern, Philippa Gregory style of historical fiction. So, I guess it's not to everyone's taste. Her best known work is her first novel, We Speak No Treason, and although I found the writing there beautiful, the multiple-narrator structure dragged quite a bit and the dialogue seemed overly melodramatic. However, I was very pleasantly surprised with The King's Grey Mare. Perhaps experience had tightened up her abilities, or perhaps the classic novel type suits her better.

My favourite parts were in the earlier part of the book; Edward IV barrelling through the forest on a hunt, the legend of Melusine, the bliss of Bradgate, the court of the young and lovely Queen Marguerite. Places where the author's imagination has free rein. Perhaps predictably, the better documented parts of history, the machinations of politics, fall a little flat compared to the more magical parts of the novel. However, the final part of the book, which is set post-Bosworth where Henry Tudor is king, is gripping. It's unusual for a novel set in this period to spend much time, if any, after the fall of the Plantagenets. But if you've ever wondered exactly what happened to Elizabeth under Tudor rule, this book offers to fill in the gaps. Of course, there are some things we will never know the truth about, but Rosemary Hawley Jarman's explanation makes for an arresting conclusion.