Here's another book I want to plug -- The Traitor's Wife by Susan Higginbotham. This one earned a well-deserved spot on my top-ten historical fiction list (like anybody's listening to my opinion -- but, if you are, read this book!) The Traitor's Wife will be re-issued in 2009 (April, I think) but you can go ahead and pre-order it on Amazon.com (and maybe elsewhere?). If you love historical fiction, you will love this novel!From Amazon.com:
In fourteenth-century England, young Eleanor de Clare, favorite niece of King Edward II, is delighted with her marriage to Hugh le Despenser and her appointment to Queen Isabella's household as a lady-in-waiting. It soon becomes apparent, however, that Eleanor’s beloved uncle is not the king the nobles of the land—or his queen—expected. Hugh’s unbridled ambition and his intimate relationship with Edward arouse widespread resentment, even as Eleanor remains fiercely loyal to her husband and to her king. But loyalty has its price… Moving from royal palaces to prison cells, from the battlefield to the bedroom, between hope and despair, treachery and fidelity, hatred and abiding love, The Traitor's Wife is a tale of an extraordinary woman living in extraordinary times.
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I really enjoyed this book.
ReplyDeleteDo you read Susan's blog - Reading, Ranting, and Raving by a Historical Fiction Writer?
Yes, I do. Like many of the blogs I read, though, I don't do a whole lot of posting -- but I do enjoy reading them!!
ReplyDeleteI read this when it was first published and thought it was very well done - one of my favorites that year.
ReplyDeleteI love this book too - and not only because it features my favourite (and Edward II's) bad boy Hugh le Despenser!
ReplyDeleteHope you have a great Xmas Lynn, and all the best for a fab 2009!
Is there a list somewhere of all fiction which has Hugh as a character?
ReplyDeleteI hope you -- and everyone else -- has a great Christmas, too!
I don't think so Lynn - maybe that's something I'll have to look into in the new year ;-)
ReplyDelete(Blushing) Thanks, all!
ReplyDeleteI have a list of Edward II-related fiction on my website (it needs an updating). There's quite a bit of Hugh in Pamela Bennetts' The She-Wolf, the two Brenda Honeyman books, the Edith Felber book, the Mary Ellen Johnston book, and the Hilda Lewis books. My favorites are the Bennetts, the Honeyman, and the Johnston books. If you want a really strange portrayal of Hugh, look at the Emily Sarah Holt novels, where Hugh is portrayed as somewhat of a religious martyr. They're a hoot!