After reading "Feast In The Morning", I found I was hooked on these real people and this era. I just had to know what happened after the death of Elizabeth's brother. This biography covers the entire lifetime of Elizabeth, at times it is very difficult to follow. As a persons name and place names were often the same, and in many cases the author would be talking about Lord Robert Dunley, then later she may refer to him as the Protector or as the Earl of Leicester, or as Leicester or The Earl. As you can see this can get confusing to follow who is who.

This book really gives you the feel of the Queen and her times. Her nemisis Mary Queen of Scots was present throughout Elizabeth's lifetime and had a big influnence on her. Many times I wondered what I would do if faced with Elizabeth's problems, she was very creative.

Many importaint parts of history may have been left out or hardly mentioned, while other unimportaint events were exponded on.

It was interesting to read about the Earl of Oxford and his relationship with the Queen, as now there seems to be a camp of people who believe that he was really Shakespear. The author was recounting their relationship without the knowledge of this controversity.

This book is not a 'life and times' volume. It is single-minded in its telling of Elizabeth's life. I found the book to be captivating. I keep it on my desk at work for those rare days when I don't go out to lunch. I know that I can always open the book to any page and find an interesting story ahead.

This excellent book paints an unforgettable portrait of Elizabeth I, "Good Queen Bess" to her loving subjects. Her fascinating life and vibrant personality are caught with great truth and clarity. Elizabeth Regina-LONG LIVE THE QUEEN!

David Willis McCullough has edited and combined many, many original texts of Wars of the Irish Kings (so goes the title) that can be interesting, frustrating, dull or very dull depending on the particular source used. It is a little jarring to go from one of the source writers to another as their styles are often different and the short length of the excerpts does not allow enough time to get used to a particular format or way of expressing ideas before it is time to move on. The flurry of names coming at the reader can be quite daunting, as well. The best and most effective part of the book are the brief introductions before each original source. They are concise, well-written and effectively prepare the reader for what is to come. The book does make me want to read further in Irish history to help fill in some of the gaps left empty by this book.

This book contains stories from a thousand years of Irish kings, as drawn from primary sources. The book begins with the legendary stories of the Book of Invasions, and the stories of Cuchulain, Finn MacCool and Mad King Sweeney, all of which are translated in a clear and compelling style. The stories then continue through to Hugh O'Neill and the Nine Years War. Each section begins with an introduction, and each chapter begins with a preface that introduces the author and what the author is writing about. As an added bonus, this book includes a glossary of common Irish words used in place names (e.g. dun, bally, etc.) and a guide to pronunciation.

This is a wonderful resource. I have read many books on Irish history, and it is great to be able read about select episodes as written about by people who lived closer to the actual events. The stories are easy to read, and are quite entertaining. I recommend this book.

Interesting portrayal of the different leaders of Ireland. A book that I read because of my growing interest in the Irish heritage...Maybe that is because of my girlfriend...but definetly a book to read if you are either of Irish hertiage or like to find out about royalty.

This book is very dull. It tells about every single person she encountered in her 18 years. There are way too many names to ever remember them all. I was too worried trying to remember who everyone was that it was easy to forget that this book was actually about Queen Elizabeth. In the end this book went virtually no where. It gave a few points about her rise to power starting at childhood, but mainly it was just names of people that she knew.

Elizabeth I is one the most famous woman in history, and yet history books concentrate on the accomplishments of her reign without paying much attention to the woman behind them. This book is a wonderful introduction to Elizabeth the woman- well researched and detailed, it is never-the-less an enjoyable read for the non-historian. By reviewing the early incidents which shaped Elizabeth and her view of the world, Plowden lays the groundwork for explaining her actions thoughout her long reign. I haven't read the rest of the series yet, but I am looking forward to doing so in the near future.

Books should be judged on whether they achieve their purpose. Plowden's purpose in this book appears to be the creation of a scholarly, yet readable biography of Elizabeth I's pre-queen years. This she does with consummate skill. The writing is superb, and the scholarship seems excellent. Plowden selects details calculated to wet the reader's curiosity and to draw a thorough picture of her subject. She has definite opinions, but she does not do all her readers' thinking for them.

I found this book and the rest in Plowden's Elizabeth quartet very appealing. Based on these books, I've been collecting biographies on all sorts of other tantalizing personalities that the writer mentions in passing.

Note: I am an English masters student, not a historian. I am therefore better qualified to judge the quality of the writing than the quality of the research.

One criticism: The book begins with a very swift overview of the complex circumstances leading to Elizabeth's birth. The part pertaining to Henry VIII is easily digestible, but the earlier section involving Henry VII, Katherine of Valois, Owen Tudor, and the War of the Roses proceeds at baffling speed. If you are not already familiar with this convoluted period of English history, the multitude of characters entering and exiting the stage may overwhelm you. My advice: hang in there; it gets better.

Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, while admirable in her passion and energy, should be ignored and left unread for her unbending, close-minded, self-pitying, small, and miserable book Why I Can't Read Wallace Stegner and Other Essays. She clearly has no understanding of Stegner's work. She also apparently refuses to try to appreciate the work of anyone with the slightest disagreement with her worldview, which is narrow and mean-spirited at best. She assaults Michael Dorris for speaking lowly of an alcoholic woman who caused the mental retardation of her child by her carelessness. She thinks this is a bad choice on Dorris' part because the woman was a Native American. Does she believe that Native Americans are somehow above criticism? What race can claim such moral perfection and not seem like small-minded racists? Every member of every race is responsible for his/her actions, and if Ms. Cook-Lynn had read more of Stegner's work before she blindly bashed it, she would understand that deeper human truth, which is obvious to any real thinker.

I am annoyed to even have to mention such basic beliefs. There is no reason to believe that a group of people is better than another group, or that only members of that group have a right to write histories about the group. Ms. Cook-Lynn has some ideas about white history that she freely spouts, and I believe in my heart of hearts that it is her right to write alternate interpretations of the past (though she seems to just be rewording long-tired versions of history).

Only by hearing what other groups have to say about us can we grow by seeing ourselves with new perspective. Ms. Cook-Lynn hasn't even read Stegner--she refuses to hear anything but her own shrill, childish voice. I for one look forward to reading critical analyses of society, history, and literature by African Americans, Native Americans, German Americans, Frenchmen, Poles, Australians, etc. This is what led me to read Ms. Cook-Lynn's book. However, I was met with a fierce small-mindedness that enraged rather than enlightened.

Ignore this book. It is not worth the paper it was printed on. So long as these sorts of ideas are propagated, humankind will never end its struggles with racism and hatred.

this is such a wonderful book to read, it's truly beyond words!

This is Karen Harper's third outing in her Elizabeth I mystery series. Verily forsooth, "The Twylight Tower" doesn't live up to its immediate predecessor, "The Tidal Poole." Despite concerns about some of Harper's historical inaccuracies, I think the main problem with the novel was a surfeit of history. Harper has reached an historical point where Elizabeth's life and activities are too well-documented to make her a credible amateur detective. In the previous novels, Elizabeth was still the despised and ignored half-sister. While the biographical outline of her early life is known, an author like Harper could exercise wide creative latitude as to how Princess Elizabeth spent her time.

This is not the case in "The Twylight Tower." As the series proceeds chronologically, Elizabeth is now Queen of England. Harper doesn't seem able to devise a plausible mystery within the confines of the better known historical details of Elizabeth's summer at Windsor in 1560. For instance, the significance of her romance with Robert Dudley is much studied, as are the circumstances of the death his wife, Amy Robsart; the machinations of the Spanish ambassador; and the political fortunes of Robert Cecil, the Lord Chancellor.

In addition, Harper seems to be losing interest in the minor characters who comprise the Privy Plot Council. This time around Meg is portrayed as a sniveling liar, Burleigh a drunk, and Ned is barely seen at all. Too bad. These characters helped make the previous books interesting.

This series is becoming tiresome. Other reviewers have commented on the soap opera romance aspect of this novel, so I'd like to direct my criticism to Harper's knowledge of history, or lack thereof, and to her style.

First, her history. The first novel in the series was bad enough, with not the slightest mention that Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth's mother, was herself a Butler of Ormond! The princess's erstwhile murderer would, therefore, have been a cousin, and letting the reader in on their relationship would have deepened and enriched the story.

But that's a mere quibble. On page 238 of THE TWYLIGHT TOWER, Elizabeth says, in reference to the founding of the Order of the Garter, "I'll tell you one thing about King Edward III, who began this nearly six centuries ago. . ."

As a student of the Fourteenth Century, I gritted my teeth on reading so crass a mistake. The Garter's founding is sightly uncertain, but the Order was founded (indeed, by Edward III) some time between 1344 and 1348. Now, simple subtraction from 1560 gives us a difference of little more than 200 years, not 600. I thought the error might be a strange typo--perhaps originally "200" mistakenly typed as "600" and then editorially spelled out. But it is Harper's mistake. Two pages later Robert Dudley (perhaps addled by lust!) refers to the founding as occurring "hundreds of years ago."

At that point I felt like throwing an ink bottle at Karen Harper. No one so ignorant of history should be writing a novel purporting to be "historical."

As for style, Harper is too often guilty of indulging in the "forsooth school" of dialogue (Josephine Tey's term), yet is maddeningly inconsistent in her use of historically correct grammar. Since I believe that she is an English teacher, she is surprisingly ignorant of extant older grammatical forms. Here lapses are manifold, and include using the indicative rather than the subjunctive mode ("if it was" rather than "if it were") and "like" instead of "such as" in a phrase containing a verb.

Picky, perhaps, but such Americanisms are quite destructive of the novel's verisimiliatude. Are her characters Elizabethans--or modern Americans speaking U.S. English?

My recommendation is to avoid these novels...

Elizabeth is newly Queen and England is rocked by intrigue. The French and Spanish conspire to push their candidates for Elizabeth's husband--or her replacement. In England itself, the powerful jockey for their place in Elizabeth's court. Yet England is lately recovered from the civil wars that showed that any man with power could seize the crown. Can Elizabeth stand against all?

In THE TWYLIGHT TOWER, Karen Harper presents Elizabeth with an additional problem--murder. While at first the deaths appear accidental, they soon resolve to a major threat to Elizabeth herself. Elizabeth's privy council wait for her orders to swing into action (this is the third of Harper's Elizabeth mysteries after all so they know how to sidekick), but Elizabeth is too busy being enamored of Lord Robert to have much time for crime solving.

That, in a nutshell is the problem with the book. The protagonist of a mystery is too busy to solve the mystery until the very end. Like most mystery readers, I prefer to see the protagonist struggle, seeking resolution in a number of ways. Waiting through two hundred pages for the protagonist to get around to it isn't what I want.

I enjoyed THE TWYLIGHT TOWER and I think the concept of Elizabeth as detective is delightful. As a mystery, I found it merely average, however.

of all the sorry excuses i've seen for dumping one's kids in day care, this is the saddest thing of all. eighteen nannies! do you know the emotional havoc for this boy? this is so contrary to the needs of a human infant. for shame

I too read the book. I found it both humorous and educational. I don't remember anything in it about a poor, traumatized child.

I think the other reviewer on this book didn't even read it. I did. She did not have 18 nannies, she interviewed that many, looking for the right one for her kid. This is a funny, endearing, entertaining book and it's a shame that it's gone out of print.

Conyers Read's work is a very thorough biography of the life of Sir Francis Walsingham (1532 -1590).

Walsingham's life was of riveting interest (politics, espionage, war, exploration). Read misses some areas of this because of changing historical styles, and the availability of a wider range of sources.

However the primary problem is his absolute lack of nuance in approaching the subject; the book lacks real insight, and is very blind to the politics and factional manoeuvrings of Elizabeth's court. He also underrates the sophistication and professionalism of the people he is studying.

He is very useful for his thorough reading of the main English sources for the period and his efficient citation of them.

Mitchell Leimon MA (Glasg) PhD (Cantab)

C'mon, you had something going with this. A very good book in terms of facts. I really liked to read it, but you could have made it a little more interesting. good job though.

Elizabeth I has had many biographers good, bad and nasty. Susan Bassnett has provided a path through a maze of publications with her clear and calm approach that both refutes the many myths about Elizabeth Tudor and prompts the reader to take her consideration and reading much further.

Bassnett's conclusions of the Mary Queen of Scots relationship are lucid and sympathetic and demonstrate how Elizabeth felt her own position as a female monarch was threatened by Mary Stuart's disatrous attempt to balance rule and personal feelings. The interpretation of Elizabeth's virginity - akin to the holy order of a Renaissance nun - was highly convincing and illuminating. The Essex relationship was the best treatment I've read of it.

This book should lead readers back to the most accessible collection of Elizabeth I's letters by G. B. Harrison. I would have given this valuable book a greater star rating if it had been longer, but would recommend it to anyone facing the pile of books on this subject for the first time.

This is an informal, chatty, biography of Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman in America to become a doctor. For a young reader it's probably just right as an inspiring read. However, while there's a good deal of information it's sometimes hard to extract from the text, so it would not be the best choice for say, facts for a paper. For an adult reader the book is still interesting, but some of the liberties the author takes are annoying - I.e. a lot of the book is written from inside Dr. Blackwell's head. Worth reading if you run into a copy.

A very colorful story embellishing a few known facts. The inaccuracies regarding Edward Courtenay, the Earl of Devonshire are disturbing.

A very colorful story that embellishes a few facts. The inaccuracies regarding Edward Courtenay, the Earl of Devonshire are disturbing.

This book takes a rather casual tack with history -- putting likely thoughts into historical personage's minds -- but detailed and exacting footnotes reassure the reader that there is some scholarship to be had here. This book covers the history of the Tudor family from 1536 to 1558, from the death of Catherine of Aragon and the execution of Anne Bolyen to the ascention of her daughter Elizabeth I to the throne.

In those twenty-two years, England would have two kings, two queens, major shifts in religion and politics, five royal marriages, royal scandals beyond counting, births, deaths, literally hundreds of executions for heresy and treason, and in the middle of it all, a Princess fearing for her life, locked up in stone towers and seduced by a dashing rogue.

And it's all true!

(And what was so wrong with the Courtney information that one reviewer felt compelled to disclaim it twice?)