Elizabeth and Mary – Royal Cousins, Rival Queens – which is edited by Susan Doran is a lovely book and I was lucky enough to be sent a copy of it by British Library for review. Among many things the book contains contributions in the shape of essays by 14 academics, mainly historians, as you would expect.
This is a really sumptuous book with beautiful photographs of historic portraits, jewels and religious works, maps and drawings of castles, but by far most of the photographs are of letters sent by and to Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots to each other and to many of the prominent people of the times.
It’s not all letters though, there are also poems and speeches written by Elizabeth and Mary and even John Knox makes an appearance.
My only gripe is that most of the documents are not big enough to be able to read, but as many are in French or Latin possibly it was thought that readers wouldn’t want to read them for themselves. I must admit that it’s quite some time since I was sent this one for review, but it isn’t really the sort of book that you sit down and read quickly from cover to cover, it’s the sort that you dip in and out of and savour over quite some time.
This book was produced by British Library to accompany an Elizabeth and Mary exhibition, which I so wish I had been able to go to, but this book is the next best thing I suppose.
Thank you to British Library for sending me a copy of the book.
When I started studying Scottish history at Glasgow Uni, I popped into the Scottish history library and asked for stuff about Mary Queen of Scots. The librarian kindly dug out a huge volume of her letters, which turned out to be written in medieval French! I fear my O-level French wasn’t up to the task, but I was too young and shy to admit it, so sat in the library staring blankly at the pages for an hour before I felt I could reasonably hand it back and leave… ????
Those questions marks were supposed to be a wink – technology, tchah!
FictionFan,
LOL – as they say. I did manage to see some of the writing by using a big magnifier meant for needlework, and I realised that I couldn’t decipher it anyway, but surely the ones between Mary and Elizabeth would have been in English – or maybe not
I would have liked to see that exhibit too! Surprised I didn’t see the book on sale at the British Library shop when I was there. I did see a great Tudor exhibit in New York in December.
Constance,
That is surprising although I think the exhibition was some time ago. Originally it was published in hardback, but I was sent a paperback which is heavy enough to handle as it’s on really high quality glossy paper. Everywhere I go seems to be a place linked with Mary, including the town I grew up in as she was at Dumbarton Castle and I now live close to Loch Leven, one of the many places she escaped from. I wish I could have seen that Tudor exhibition in NY, but I’m waiting for the ‘beam me up Scotty’ gadget to be invented as I am not keen on flying!