Finishing 'The Kingmaker's Daughter' by Philippa Gregory meant I felt ready to watch the BBC series 'The White Queen', starring Rebecca Ferguson (Elizabeth Woodville), Amanda Hale (Margaret Beaufort, 'The Red Queen') and Faye Marsay (Anne Neville, 'The Kingmaker's Daughter').
Originally broadcast on BBC One in 2013, 'The White Queen' is based on three of the Cousins' War novels, 'The White Queen', 'The Red Queen' and 'The Kingmaker's Daughter'. It brings to life a dark and complex world of conspiracies, alliances and dynastic ambition, not to mention all the books' key players.
I'm really glad that I waited until I'd read all three of the source novels before watching this. The reason why films and TV series often fail to convince readers is simply because their writers can't squeeze everything in a book(s) into a few hours of screen time. This leaves them with a tough choice; cut chunks of the original story or squeeze everything in without covering it properly. My memory may be letting me down, but I'm pretty sure that the makers of 'The White Queen' went for the latter option, which meant that it was actually a really useful reminder of what happened in the books rather than a standalone piece in its own right. It may not be what the BBC originally intended, but I feel well prepared for 'The White Princess' and her successors now!
On the whole, I thought the casting was strong and the actors did a good job. Rebecca Ferguson and the other leading ladies were excellent, but Max Irons (Edward IV) didn't work for me and James Frain (Earl of Warwick) wasn't my image of the Kingmaker at all. Frain's a great actor who I've enjoyed in many other films and programmes, but I feel he's at his best when playing slippery politicians rather than bullish warriors. I just couldn't imagine him having the physical power to wield a sword in battle, which was slightly distracting. Just like the books, it was an interesting ensemble piece, however, and it worked because the collective talent present was so strong. I've spent so much time on IMDb checking people I'd seen somewhere before!
A lot of work had clearly gone into the gorgeous costumes and the use of colour was thoughtful. Several times I found myself wishing I could wear a few of the stunning gowns - both luxurious and warm looking! But where were the hats? Duchess Cecily had a couple of nice bits of headgear,but on the whole they seemed to be completely absent, which seemed a bit odd when they got so many mentions in the books.
The other element I usually like in a historical drama is the locations. 'The White Queen' was filmed in Belgium and provided some stunning backgrounds. The set piece coronations and court scenes offered a glimpse of medieval glamour and made rooms that seem spartan by today's standards rich and opulent, full of brightly coloured glass and richly embroidered hangings. But all too often it felt restricted and fairy tale-esque and none of the exteriors really felt like, well, England.
On the whole, I enjoyed 'The White Queen', but it'll probably be a while before I watch it again. It was a useful revision tool, but on the whole felt too clean and tidy to have the sense of time and place that I always bang on about in historical novels. On the one hand, I completely understand that the tumble-down structures we see today aren't the highly painted and richly furnished castles and churches our ancestors would've recognised, but equally everything looked a bit too fresh out of the box to be completely believable in this programme.
I've heard rumours that a new series based on 'The White Princess' may follow. I think I would watch it, but I really do need to read the books first!
Now, back to the books!
Related Links
Official BBC One Website
IMDb site
Philippa Gregory Official Website
Showing posts with label plantagenet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label plantagenet. Show all posts
25 September 2015
13 September 2015
Crowning Conspiracies
Hello darlings! Have you missed me? Know I've missed you, so let's get cracking.
I recently finished reading 'The Kingmaker's Daughter' by Philippa Gregory, the fourth instalment in her Cousins' War series covering the conflict often called the Wars of the Roses. It took me a while to get around to reading this because, although I loved the first book ('The Lady of the Rivers'), I didn't enjoy the next two novels as much, so rather lost the impetus to keep reading. With so much publicity around a new book by Ms. Gregory, however, I was reminded how much I enjoy her work and decided to go back to the 1400s and see what was happening.
Anne Neville is the youngest daughter for the great Earl of Warwick, known as the Kingmaker for his part in bringing Edward IV to the throne. But fortune's wheel is always turning and when the King secretly marries Elizabeth Woodville rather than the French princess Warwick has negotiated for him, he realises he's losing both the power and influence for which he fought. Resourceful and cunning, Warwick decides to use all his assets to regain his status, including his only children, daughters Isabel and Anne. The girls become pawns in a risky struggle, used by power-hungry men in a game of high stakes and ultimate prizes. But in a world where people will stop at nothing to win a crown, is anyone truly safe?
Reading this book proves a theory mentioned in my blog about 'The Red Queen', the previous title in this series. I'd found the novel dull partly because I'd only just read 'The White Queen', which covered the same-ish time period, just from a different character's perspective. I found it harder to keep reading because I knew what was going to happen. By 'The Kingmaker's Daughter', however, I'd forgotten the details of the earlier books and found my interest once again piqued by Gregory's choice of narrator and perspective, as well as her superlative skill in conjuring a sense of time and place.
I've always preferred reading historical novels that explore the politics of an era and this is a key theme of 'The Kingmaker's Daughter'. Though pretty powerless, Anne and her sister are often at the centre of plots and counter-plots that see allegiances change and their status rise and fall. They get used so often by the men around them over their lifetimes that paranoia takes hold and, even when they do achieve their aims, they are unable to enjoy it or think of anything other than keeping hold of their positions. As such, this book is full of a tension that kept me reading right until the end.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It's even made me want to go back and give its predecessors a second chance. But I do have another one or two books to read first!
Now, what next..?
Related Posts
Cousins' War Novels
'The Lady of the Rivers'
'The White Queen'
'The Red Queen'
Also by Philippa Gregory
'The Other Queen'
'The Virgin's Lover'
I recently finished reading 'The Kingmaker's Daughter' by Philippa Gregory, the fourth instalment in her Cousins' War series covering the conflict often called the Wars of the Roses. It took me a while to get around to reading this because, although I loved the first book ('The Lady of the Rivers'), I didn't enjoy the next two novels as much, so rather lost the impetus to keep reading. With so much publicity around a new book by Ms. Gregory, however, I was reminded how much I enjoy her work and decided to go back to the 1400s and see what was happening.
 |
| 'The Kingmaker's Daughter' by Philippa Gregory (Simon and Schuster, 2012) |
Reading this book proves a theory mentioned in my blog about 'The Red Queen', the previous title in this series. I'd found the novel dull partly because I'd only just read 'The White Queen', which covered the same-ish time period, just from a different character's perspective. I found it harder to keep reading because I knew what was going to happen. By 'The Kingmaker's Daughter', however, I'd forgotten the details of the earlier books and found my interest once again piqued by Gregory's choice of narrator and perspective, as well as her superlative skill in conjuring a sense of time and place.
I've always preferred reading historical novels that explore the politics of an era and this is a key theme of 'The Kingmaker's Daughter'. Though pretty powerless, Anne and her sister are often at the centre of plots and counter-plots that see allegiances change and their status rise and fall. They get used so often by the men around them over their lifetimes that paranoia takes hold and, even when they do achieve their aims, they are unable to enjoy it or think of anything other than keeping hold of their positions. As such, this book is full of a tension that kept me reading right until the end.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It's even made me want to go back and give its predecessors a second chance. But I do have another one or two books to read first!
Now, what next..?
Related Posts
Cousins' War Novels
'The Lady of the Rivers'
'The White Queen'
'The Red Queen'
Also by Philippa Gregory
'The Other Queen'
'The Virgin's Lover'
31 August 2013
The Scarlet Woman
I've done it! Only just, but I've done it! That's another two books read this month!
Last night I finished 'The Red Queen' by Philippa Gregory, the third book in her Cousins' War series and part-inspiration for the recent BBC serial 'The White Queen'.
'The Red Queen' is Margaret Beaufort, daughter of the House of Lancaster and cousin of the unfortunate King Henry VI. Married to Henry's 24-year-old half-brother Edmund Tudor at just 12, she learns early that while an important tool in dynastic power games, she's not free to make her own decisions or wield power herself. Tudor dies two years later, but not before the 13-year-old Margaret becomes pregnant. She endures a horrifying birth which, fortunately, results in a baby boy. Naming him Henry after the troubled king of England, she sees her son as rightful heir to the throne and begins to set her sights on the ultimate prize. But will Henry Tudor support his mother's ambitions? Will her plans be discovered by the new York kings? Will either of them survive long enough to claim the crown for themselves?
I must admit I wish I hadn't started this. Not 'The Red Queen', it's not that bad. I mean that I wish I hadn't thought it would be a good idea to read a whole series of books in a row. The trouble is that this isn't a 'series' in a chronological sense. Instead of one book leading to the other, perhaps with a little transitional overlap in between, both 'The White Queen' and the 'The Red Queen' cover the same time period but from two different perspectives. And it's hard not to get a bit bored when you've heard some bits of the story before, especially when so much of both books consists of the lead characters waiting for news and wondering what's happening.
It also doesn't help that the narrators are women. I applaud Ms Gregory's intention of bringing female historical figures out of the shadows, but this doesn't change the fact that very few of them were allowed to actually do very much. I was vaguely aware that Lady Margaret Beaufort was her son's greatest confidante and advisor (none of which comes across here, so I'll have to check now.), but prior to gaining the status of King's Mother, things appear to have been very different. Beyond giving birth to Henry and finding a politically astute husband willing to support her, she doesn't really do that much in this book. What she does do is interesting, but not really enough for a whole book. The fact that Ms Gregory has to tell the final section of the story in third person away from Lady Margaret kind of suggests that even she was struggling at that stage. She didn't even bother to have her recount the story as if she'd heard it afterwards or a messenger tell her what happened.
Really, I feel that I would've enjoyed this book and its predecessor a lot more if they'd been written like 'The Other Queen', with multiple narrators, each contributing their perspective on the story to create a whole picture. I also think I might've liked it more if I'd not read it straight after 'The White Queen' as I may have forgotten some events and needed the reminder, but then again I didn't know that there was going to be so much overlap. Afterall, I loved 'The Lady of the Rivers', the first book in the series, and there was hardly any duplication between that and 'The White Queen'.
The one thing I would recommend this book for, and which shows Gregory at her best, is the birth of Henry Tudor. The incident is so shocking and awful that it could put you off having children for life. Then you remember that this was the suffering of a 13 year old girl and it all feels a lot worse. Ms Gregory is known for her skill in creating a sense of time and place through her characters and this is the only point at which I really felt it in this whole book.
I don't really want to be negative about the work of such a fantastic writer, but I didn't enjoy this book as much as I have books from the Tudor series and doubt that I'll bother reading the new novel, 'The White Princess'. What I will probably do, however, is look up some non-fiction books about the key characters portrayed. When I've got a few more titles off the shelves of course!
Now for something a bit different. Science fiction anyone?
Last night I finished 'The Red Queen' by Philippa Gregory, the third book in her Cousins' War series and part-inspiration for the recent BBC serial 'The White Queen'.
'The Red Queen' is Margaret Beaufort, daughter of the House of Lancaster and cousin of the unfortunate King Henry VI. Married to Henry's 24-year-old half-brother Edmund Tudor at just 12, she learns early that while an important tool in dynastic power games, she's not free to make her own decisions or wield power herself. Tudor dies two years later, but not before the 13-year-old Margaret becomes pregnant. She endures a horrifying birth which, fortunately, results in a baby boy. Naming him Henry after the troubled king of England, she sees her son as rightful heir to the throne and begins to set her sights on the ultimate prize. But will Henry Tudor support his mother's ambitions? Will her plans be discovered by the new York kings? Will either of them survive long enough to claim the crown for themselves?
 |
| 'The Red Queen' by Philippa Gregory (Simon & Schuster, 2010) |
It also doesn't help that the narrators are women. I applaud Ms Gregory's intention of bringing female historical figures out of the shadows, but this doesn't change the fact that very few of them were allowed to actually do very much. I was vaguely aware that Lady Margaret Beaufort was her son's greatest confidante and advisor (none of which comes across here, so I'll have to check now.), but prior to gaining the status of King's Mother, things appear to have been very different. Beyond giving birth to Henry and finding a politically astute husband willing to support her, she doesn't really do that much in this book. What she does do is interesting, but not really enough for a whole book. The fact that Ms Gregory has to tell the final section of the story in third person away from Lady Margaret kind of suggests that even she was struggling at that stage. She didn't even bother to have her recount the story as if she'd heard it afterwards or a messenger tell her what happened.
Really, I feel that I would've enjoyed this book and its predecessor a lot more if they'd been written like 'The Other Queen', with multiple narrators, each contributing their perspective on the story to create a whole picture. I also think I might've liked it more if I'd not read it straight after 'The White Queen' as I may have forgotten some events and needed the reminder, but then again I didn't know that there was going to be so much overlap. Afterall, I loved 'The Lady of the Rivers', the first book in the series, and there was hardly any duplication between that and 'The White Queen'.
The one thing I would recommend this book for, and which shows Gregory at her best, is the birth of Henry Tudor. The incident is so shocking and awful that it could put you off having children for life. Then you remember that this was the suffering of a 13 year old girl and it all feels a lot worse. Ms Gregory is known for her skill in creating a sense of time and place through her characters and this is the only point at which I really felt it in this whole book.
I don't really want to be negative about the work of such a fantastic writer, but I didn't enjoy this book as much as I have books from the Tudor series and doubt that I'll bother reading the new novel, 'The White Princess'. What I will probably do, however, is look up some non-fiction books about the key characters portrayed. When I've got a few more titles off the shelves of course!
Now for something a bit different. Science fiction anyone?
30 July 2013
The Bland Queen
I have finally finished 'The White Queen' by Philippa Gregory, the second in the 'Cousins at War' series of books (chronologically anyway!).
'The White Queen' picks up where 'The Lady of the Rivers' finished, with Jaquetta's (Lady Rivers') daughter Elizabeth Woodville heading out to meet King Edward IV at the roadside. Elizabeth is a noted beauty and Edward a notorious womaniser, so it's not surprising that romance (or lust depending on how you look at it) follows. The couple marry in secret, an act which has terrible repercussions, bringing war back to the country once more. Whether married for love or political ambition, Elizabeth, now the White Queen of York, finds herself on a journey that sees her become by turns first lady of the land and outlaw in sanctuary fearing for her life and the lives of her children. So where will the White Queen's Wheel of Fortune stop turning?
I'm sorry to say that I didn't really begin to get into this book until about two thirds of the way through. The first part is basically historical fiction romance porn, full of lust and illicit love affairs, the second part sees Elizabeth a long way from the action (at this point I wanted to follow her husband's narrative, not hers) and finally, in the third part, the White Queen starts to get fleshed out a bit and become a real, interesting character.
The final chapters see her hiding in sanctuary with her children, at which point conflict begins to develop between her and her eldest daughter, all based around Elizabeth's 'ambition'. To be honest, I hadn't noticed that she was ambitious until this point, just that she was a pawn of her mother (who has changed a lot since 'The Lady of the Rivers'). But once she'd been told she is ambitious, Elizabeth seemed keen to make up for lost time. As well as being ambitious, Elizabeth is also shown to be hopelessly politically naive, which makes it much easier to see her as a human being and even begin to relate to her. Before that, I couldn't get any sort of grip on her motivations and it made it hard to like/dislike/care about her.
There also seems to be a lot of padding in this book, a lot of phrases and ideas repeated within pages just in different words. I got absolutely sick of hearing about Elizabeth's hat coming off and her hair being unpinned and falling down. Also, the habit of modern language slipping through which I first noticed in 'The Other Queen' has reared its ugly head again. Note to editors: If a sentence ends with 'here' and when you delete it the meaning stays the same, then delete it.
Sadly, this book feels like a first draft. There is a really great story in here and it's an OK read if you've got the time to spend on it, but I know Ms Gregory can do better and it's really disappointing to read something that just doesn't hit the usual mark. Then again, it's often things going wrong that make you appreciate it when they go right. So bring on the Red Queen!
'The White Queen' picks up where 'The Lady of the Rivers' finished, with Jaquetta's (Lady Rivers') daughter Elizabeth Woodville heading out to meet King Edward IV at the roadside. Elizabeth is a noted beauty and Edward a notorious womaniser, so it's not surprising that romance (or lust depending on how you look at it) follows. The couple marry in secret, an act which has terrible repercussions, bringing war back to the country once more. Whether married for love or political ambition, Elizabeth, now the White Queen of York, finds herself on a journey that sees her become by turns first lady of the land and outlaw in sanctuary fearing for her life and the lives of her children. So where will the White Queen's Wheel of Fortune stop turning?
 |
| 'The White Queen' by Philippa Gregory (Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, 2009) |
The final chapters see her hiding in sanctuary with her children, at which point conflict begins to develop between her and her eldest daughter, all based around Elizabeth's 'ambition'. To be honest, I hadn't noticed that she was ambitious until this point, just that she was a pawn of her mother (who has changed a lot since 'The Lady of the Rivers'). But once she'd been told she is ambitious, Elizabeth seemed keen to make up for lost time. As well as being ambitious, Elizabeth is also shown to be hopelessly politically naive, which makes it much easier to see her as a human being and even begin to relate to her. Before that, I couldn't get any sort of grip on her motivations and it made it hard to like/dislike/care about her.
There also seems to be a lot of padding in this book, a lot of phrases and ideas repeated within pages just in different words. I got absolutely sick of hearing about Elizabeth's hat coming off and her hair being unpinned and falling down. Also, the habit of modern language slipping through which I first noticed in 'The Other Queen' has reared its ugly head again. Note to editors: If a sentence ends with 'here' and when you delete it the meaning stays the same, then delete it.
Sadly, this book feels like a first draft. There is a really great story in here and it's an OK read if you've got the time to spend on it, but I know Ms Gregory can do better and it's really disappointing to read something that just doesn't hit the usual mark. Then again, it's often things going wrong that make you appreciate it when they go right. So bring on the Red Queen!
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