The Lady of the Rivers

I had to go to Belgium at short notice last week. So, I grabbed my Kindle, and it was the best thing ever. I had a few books downloaded, and I chose Philippa Gregory's The Lady of the Rivers.

I have read several of Gregory's books about the Tudors (with three more to read still), I've watched The Tudors box set, the two film versions of The Other Boleyn Girl, Donizetti's opera Anna Bolena, and I'm currently reading Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall. I find that all this historical fiction is a wonderful way to discover eras that I knew nothing about (I didn't study English history at school, nor college).

The Lady of the Rivers is part of The Cousins' War Series, otherwise known as the War of the Roses. I can't claim at this point that I know as much about this period as I do now about the Tudors, but I'm getting there. I didn't know that England had taken over substantial swathes of France, for instance, nor that Joan of Arc was executed by the English Regent of France.

As always with Philippa Gregory's books, the story is told by a woman who is at the centre of events. In this case, Jacquetta of Luxembourg, a descendant of Melusina, the river goddess, who, after her first husband dies, marries for love, and finds her life buffeted in the power struggles of the War of the Roses. It's hard to know of course where history stops and fiction starts, but Philippa Gregory appears to do her homework well, making her characters completely believable in their historical context. I'm looking forward to reading plenty more of her books.