READ THIS: THE TAMING OF THE QUEEN By Philippa Gregory Our Coverage Sponsored by Stribling and Associates
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Philippa Gregory is one of the most reviewed authors on Whom You Know.
We believe we began with The White Queen
and The Red Queen
which were among her strongest, and we have done a handful of her others as well. She paints a striking, thoughtful work of both art and history when she carefully weaves her tales of royal heroines in England, and these works are supported by extraordinary research efforts.
As you open The Taming of the Queen, you'll notice family trees and maps, which are useful to go back to often. And our friend Grace will be pleased to know that THIS QUEEN was the first to be known for her love of clocks. Parr was the final wife of Henry VII, and this is her brave tale. The characters written throughout are vividly created on pages that will turn rapidly, for better or for worse. We actually couldn't eat many times after reading descriptions of the entirely revolting Henry VIII! It's not always great to be queen. Parr comes up with some well-crafted answers to a guy that thinks that women shouldn't be reading, learning, studying or thinking. Gregory certainly looks at Henry VIII in a new light as Parr shows us the art of how one can wrap another around their little finger. If marriage were an Olympic sport, Parr would have a gold.
From Whitehall Palace to St. James's Palace to Hampton Court Palace and more, at the start of each passage, Gregory informs the reader of the setting which elevates the level of extraordinary detail that adds to the tale. Overall themes of concentration are not surprising: war, religion, and royal command lord over the plot as Parr delves into the history before her and navigates her own history in The Taming of the Queen. Freedom is the overriding idea. We all know that she was dancing an ancient form of Staying Alive at the end, as she outlived him history has already told us. The way in which Parr managed to outlive her royal spouse is entirely entertaining and painful at times. You'll be on the side of this protagonist from chapter to chapter-will she live to see a happy ending? We won't ruin it for you, but we were pleased.
The Taming of the Queen is Recommended by Whom You Know.
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Philippa Gregory, author of the international bestseller The Other Boleyn Girl, tells the almost-unknown story of Henry VIII’s last queen, Kateryn Parr, in her new novel, THE TAMING OF THE QUEEN (Touchstone; Hardcover; 978-1-4767-5879-4). Even historians of the period have overlooked this quiet woman, whose charm and quick wits kept her alive when her enemies accused her of treason and her husband flirted with a new woman while spreading rumors that he was going to replace her.
Kateryn Parr, a thirty-year-old widow in a secret affair with a new lover, has no choice when a man old enough to be her father and who has buried four wives—King Henry VIII—commands her to marry him. She has no doubt of the danger she faces: the previous queen lasted sixteen months, the one before barely half a year, but she must serve the interests of her family and marry him, become queen of England, step-mother to his children, and ruler of England in his absence. But as the old, angry, ailing king’s infatuation diminishes, he proves hard to please, and Kateryn’s outspoken support of the Reformation puts her in grave danger from courtiers conspiring for power.
Gregory’s queen is a woman very far from the traditional fable of a meek nurse in the king’s final illness. Gregory paints a vivid portrait of a violent, abusive marriage and a highly-intelligent woman, ruling England in her husband’s absence, passionately in love with another man, and fighting for the rights of his daughters. Without ‘Kateryn the Queen’ (as she signed herself), the Tudor girls would not have been recognized as heirs and Elizabeth I would never have inherited the throne—nor would she have learned how a woman can rule.
“Kateryn Parr was an independently thinking woman when it was dangerous to be a woman like that,” explains Gregory. She was the first woman ever to publish in English. Amazingly, this queen was a self-taught scholar who led the drive towards the Reformation and defied her increasingly tyrannical husband. With great suspense and intrigue, Gregory shows how Henry’s advisors united against her and how she was within an inch of arrest and the scaffold. But Kateryn, with a unique mix of scholarly argument and sex appeal, kept her head.
From the author who has illustrated all of Henry’s queens comes a deeply intimate portrayal of the last: a woman who longed for passion, power, and education at the court of a medieval killer. No other writer could research or tell this story like Philippa Gregory.
THE TAMING OF THE QUEEN by Philippa Gregory
978-1-4767-5879-4
