Seaton Delaval Hall, Northumberland

Seaton Delaval Hall is a National Trust property in Northumberland which we visited back in October when we went on a north of England road trip. Parts of the house are really just a shell as there was a fire there in 1822, there was some reconstruction work done but  there is no furniture in that part.

Seton Delaval Hall, Northumberland, National Trust

The rest of the house is grand though, I liked the staircases, there are two like this one. below. I took this from the bottom looking up.

Seton Delaval staircase, Northumberland , National Trust

We walked along this colonnade to get to the habitable part of the house.

Seton Delaval Colonnade, National Trust, Northumberland

 

Seton Delaval Corridor, National Trust, Northumberland

Some unusual wall decorations in the shape of mirrors and eyes which reminded me of Elizabeth I’s dress which was embroidered with eyes – and ears too.

Eyes and mirrors , Seton Delaval Hall, Northumberland, National Trust

There’s a portrait of Henry VIII and …

Henry VIII , Seton Delaval, Northumberland, National Trust

Catherine Parr is close by.

Catharine Parr, Seton Delaval, Northumberland, National Trust

I think that the National Trust uses the property as a sort of repository for many of their treasures. There are some cabinets like the one below, displaying early porcelain.

China cabinet, Seton Delaval, Northumberland, National Trust

 

 

 

 

Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel

Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel was a re-read for me, I originally read it back in 2012, you can read my thoughts on it then here.

I enjoyed the book just as much this time around. Again I was amazed at the behaviour of Anne Boleyn, not that I think she was guilty as charged, but that she was so sure of herself where Henry was concerned and had arguments with him, and threw tantrums. I read the love letters between the two of them, which you can read on Project Gutenberg here. Considering that she strung him along for seven years it’s no wonder Henry was more than a wee bit disgruntled.

I don’t think I noticed at my first reading of it that there were a few mentions of Cromwell’s father Walter going out of his way to help his son out of difficulties, but he had kept it secret from Cromwell, so he didn’t discover his father’s kindness to him until he was an adult and well on his way in his career. Cromwell had hated his father, with good reason as he was abusive and brutal, especially when drunk. But Cromwell’s harsh upbringing helped form the man he became.

I couldn’t help thinking about the Johnny Cash song – A Boy Named Sue.

Another thing that struck me was the number of men called Thomas who were around the Tudor court of that time. It’s not a very common name nowadays, Thomas seems to have been like the ‘John’ of the early 20th century. There are almost no Johns nowadays, but plenty of Jacks.

So why were so many men named Thomas in Tudor times? I can only think that they might have been named after Thomas Beckett. As biblical names go Thomas isn’t a great one to choose as the Thomas in that was ‘doubting.’ It’s a mystery to me, do any of you have any thoughts on the matter? For some reason names have always interested me.

If you’re interested you can read Jack’s thoughts on Bring Up the Bodies here. I’m now reading The Mirror and the Light.

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel – a re-read

I decided to read Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall again, I rarely re-read books but in my mind this is a book that I remembered loving, imagine my surprise when I looked back on my 2012 thoughts on it and discovered I wasn’t that enthralled with it. You can see what I thought of Wolf Hall here. I suspect that when I watched the TV series with all the sumptuous costumes, settings and good acting I was enamoured.

Anyway, this time around I did really enjoy it. As it happens I discovered that late at night on TV Wolf Hall was being shown again, so I ended up watching it at the same time I was reading the book and realised that all of the dialogue is exactly as it was in the book.

Wolf Hall begins in 1500 and ends in 1535, but does slip back to the 1520s for a few chapters early on. It was definitely interesting times. I very much doubt that a neglected and abused child in the 20th or 21st century could have risen to the heights that Thomas Cromwell did, which is quite depressing really. Cromwell was definitely a flawed human being (which of us isn’t?!) but especially within his family and personal life, he comes across as being a good guy with really likeable traits.

You can read Jack’s thoughts on the book here.

The Lady in the Tower by Alison Weir

I had absolutely no intention of reading another book by Alison Weir so soon after reading her book Innocent Traitor a fictional account of Lady Jane Grey’s life, but when I saw The Lady in the Tower sitting on the non-fiction shelves of one of Fife’s at risk of closure libraries I just had to borrow it. It is of course a biography of Anne Boleyn which was first published in 2009.

I must say that I preferred this one to the only fictional one of hers which I’ve read, and it’s also better than her biography of Mary Boleyn, which was just full of supposition and question marks. However this one isn’t perfect by any means. I find it annoying when she gives four slightly different accounts of the same meeting – shock horror, different people report things differently. It didn’t add anything to the book, except to bulk out the pages, just padding really. Weir should edit herself more strictly.

She also seemed to be keen to lay most of the blame of Anne Boleyn’s demise at Cromwell’s feet, and not Henry VIII. Cromwell was just trying to make sure that he himself didn’t end up getting the chop for facilitating Henry’s marriage to Anne. Kings have a terrible tendency to blame anyone but themselves for their bad behaviour.

Most of all though it was Anne Boleyn who set herself up for such a heavy fall. She strung a king along for years, not sleeping with him and playing the virtuous lady card – when in fact she was anything but innocent. She had hissy fits when she didn’t get her own way, she was greedy, arrogant and too familiar with men. Those men had the same failings which led to them all being despised and friendless within the rest of the court. The most amazing thing is that they didn’t see it coming, considering that Anne was supposed to be very well educated and politically astute. Anne and her gentlemen friends were almost certainly all framed, but we knew that already – didn’t we?

Henry must have felt such a fool for allowing Anne to behave as she did, apparently she humiliated him in public by being distinctly unimpressed by his musical skills and poetry – and saying so! Kings even more than most men need to be buttered up, and anyway I quite like Greensleeves. I’ve long thought that it was just amazing that Henry didn’t have her bumped off, poisoned or pushed downstairs or something, it would have been a lot simpler, but he did seem to be obsessed with doing things legally.

Well, The Lady in the Tower seems to have given me quite a lot to think about, and the cover reminded me that when I first saw Diana, Princess of Wales wearing her ‘D’ pendant which she was very fond of pre her marriage, I thought immediately that it wasn’t a good omen. Surely she must have realised that it was Boleyn’s favourite type of jewel too! No, I’m not saying that Diana was bumped off by anyone, except a drunken and drugged up driver, but they seemed to be a similar type of woman.

It was pointed out in the book that Anne’s temper tantrums might have been exacerbated by raging hormones, as after they got married she was almost always in a state of pregnancy or recovering from birth or miscarriages. I’d agree with that, but she was ‘difficult’ long before they got married, I suppose we can blame that on PMT!

Have you read The Lady in the Tower? If so what are your thoughts on it?

You might be interested in reading the love letters sent between Henry and Anne which are available on Project Gutenberg here.

And below is a lovely version of Greensleeves, if you fancy a listen to it.

Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel

I got an e-mail on Thursday from the library asking me to come and pick up this book, I requested it from them months ago so there was obviously a long queue of people in front of me. Anyway, I picked it up on Thursday night and as there’s a note on the inside of the book asking people to read it as quickly as possible as it’s in demand I did just that and finished it this afternoon.

Thankfully at 410 pages this one isn’t as huge as Wolf Hall which I found to be an unwieldy beast to read even although I enjoyed the contents.

I think I actually liked this book even more than Wolf Hall, possibly because I did read it over such a short period of time and I didn’t have any problems with the writing, either I’ve got used to her style or she has improved it because Wolf Hall was a wee bit confusing at times with so many he saids and it not always being obvious who the he was.

I’m sure everyone knows what Bring Up the Bodies is about. It’s the continuation of Thomas Cromwell’s career at Henry VIII’s court. Cromwell hasn’t allowed the disadvantages of being the son of a blacksmith to hold him back, in fact the survival skills he learned as a youngster have been a help to him in his post of Henry’s Chief Minister. As a commoner he’s looked down on by the aristocrats at court but they’re also afraid of his power. Cromwell has plenty of enemies, it’s a dangerous combination.

Cromwell had done everything he could to please Henry by making it possible for Anne to become his wife and Queen but Henry is less than pleased with Anne and is keen to get on to the next wife, Jane Seymour. It’s Cromwell’s job to find a way out for the king. This book ends in 1536 with Anne Boleyn getting the chop – or should I say the swish!

Hilary Mantel is apparently writing the next book in this series. I’m really looking forward to it. There are only four more years to go for Thomas Cromwell so it shouldn’t be a massive tome.

Bring Up The Bodies won the 2012 Man Booker Prize.

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

I bought a hardback copy of this book for £2 from a charity shop shortly after it had been published and it has taken me until now to get around to reading it. I was put off reading it mainly because it looked like such a thick tome whenever I passed it, which was very often as it was situated on that bookcase which is half-way up the stairs, on the mezzanine level, well that’s what an estate agent would call it.

Actually it turned out to be not as long as I had thought, just 650 pages but I have to report that although I enjoyed Wolf Hall, I wasn’t as enamoured of it as so many other readers seem to have been. I think maybe I’ve just had enough of the Tudors at the moment, that era does seem to be the one everyone concentrates on. Having said that, I will read the sequel whenever I can get hold of it.

My favourite history book concerning that time is The Wives of Henry VIII by Antonia Fraser and if you’re keen on the Tudors then you’ll really enjoy that one. Don’t be put off by the fact that it’s a history book rather than fiction, it’s very readable.

Speaking of huge tomes, I’ve decided to start reading the book which I bought at the Chatsworth shop last summer when we visited that stately home. It’s The Mitfords – Letters Between Six Sisters and I plan to read 30 or 40 pages each day, otherwise I’ll never get around to it at all. It’s 804 pages long and very heavy and unwieldy, not easy bedtime reading.

But which book am I going to choose to read on my Kindle now – decisions, decisions!