Allison BaileyReview/Recommendation IV5/27/14

Think your family is messed up? Elizabeth, daughter of King Henry VIII, might have you beat.

The Lady Elizabeth, by Alison Weir, is a complicated and compassionate account of Elizabeth's life up

to the point when she becomes Queen of England. Early in the book, the Pope has forbidden Henry

VIII from divorcing Elizabeth's mother, Ann Boleyn, so Henry had her executed for treason when

Elizabeth was only a toddler. Her father remarried and declared Elizabeth and her sister, Mary,

illegitimate daughters.

Elizabeth endured an unusually long succession of step-mothers during her childhood, followed

by the death of her father in adolescence. Elizabeth's sister, Queen Mary, had her imprisoned in the

Tower of London, the place to which her own mother was confined just before her execution. However,

out of this nightmare childhood and a family life that none could envy, rose one of the great monarchs

of England – Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen, who is credited with ruling over England's golden age as a

ruler remembered for her leadership qualities.

Weir never sugarcoats the darker parts (of which there are many) and uses vivid and descriptive

language to tell the story. The novel is engrossing and suspenseful – a good trick to pull off, since most

readers likely know how the story turns out before they even open the book. This book would be a

great read for fans of Weir's non-fiction history books as well as for fans of historical fiction by authors

like Hilary Mantel, Bernard Cromwell and Kate Atkinson.