I'm a huge fan of British Monarchy -- courts and castles, especially the 1100s-1600s. Alison's writing is gripping and easy to follow, considering the huge cast of characters involved in bringing the past into the present. She takes the time to paint a portrait of the world surrounding the characters. She really makes you feel like you are there.

Henry VIII is perhaps England's most infamous monarch, especially when it comes to matters of the heart. He was married to six women: Katherine of Aragon (stubborn and devoutly Catholic) Anne Boleyn (proud and fiercely ambitious), Jane Seymour, (deceptively strong-willed), Anne of Cleves (unappealing and uncomplaining), Katherine Howard (young and foolish) and Katherine Parr (brave, practical and intelligent). This book gives voices to the six extraordinary women who left their distinctive marks on the English throne and thereby changed the course of British history.

This is the sequel to The Six Wives of Henry VIII. When Henry VIII died in 1547 he left three highly intelligent children to succeed him in turn - Edward, Mary and Elizabeth, if their lines failed, by the descendants of his sister Mary Tudor, one of whom was the ill-fated nine-days queen, Lady Jane Grey. Edward was nine years old, Mary thirty-one, Elizabeth thirteen and Jane ten. Edward, Elizabeth and Jane were staunch Protestants, Mary a devout Catholic; each had a very different mother and they had grown up in vastly different circumstances.

The story of the death, in sinister circumstances, of the boy-king Edward V and his younger brother Richard, Duke of York, is one of the most fascinating murder mysteries in English history. It is a tale with profound moral and social consequences, rich in drama, intrigue, treason, scandal and violence. ps: Richard III did it...

Lancaster and York. For much of the fifteenth century, these two families were locked in battle for control of the British monarchy. Kings were murdered and deposed. Armies marched on London. Old noble names were ruined while young dynasties seized power and lands. The war between the royal Houses of Lancaster and York the longest and most complex in British history, profoundly altered the course of the monarchy.

Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine was one of the leading personalities of the Middle Ages, and also one of the most controversial. She was beautiful, intelligent and wilful. Eleanor married in turn Louis VII of France and Henry II of England, and was the mother of Richard the Lionheart and King John. She lived to be 82, but it was only in old age that she triumphed over the adversities and tragedies of her earlier years and became virtual ruler of England.

Don't even bother looking to the movie 'Elizabeth' to get some insight on the life of Elizabeth I. It was far from the truth. To say that the writers took artistic license is an understatement. Queen Elizabeth I reigned prosperously for more than forty years, from 1558 to her death in 1603. During her rule she remained an extremely private person, keeping her own counsel and sharing secrets with no one not even her closest, most trusted advisors. The book offers fresh insights on the intimacy between Elizabeth and Robert Dudley, who rose from Master of the Horse to become Earl of Leicester; the imprisonment and execution of Elizabeth's rival, Mary Stuart; Elizabeth's clash with Philip of Spain, once her suitor and then her enemy; and the cruel betrayal of her beloved Essex. Against a lavish backdrop of pageantry and passion, intrigue and war, Weir dispels the myths surrounding Elizabeth I.