Elizabeth I and her world by Susan Watkins is a lovely book with sumptuous photographs by Mark Fiennes. I borrowed this one from the library just last week, I must admit that it was the photos that really attracted me and I had intended just drooling over all the Tudor portraits, grand buildings, jewels, gardens and paintings of various scenes, but when I began to read it I quickly realised that I wanted to read it all. Despite knowing quite a lot about the Tudor courts and Elizabeth there was still a lot to learn from this book. Elizabeth may have made some mistakes as a youngster but she certainly learnt from them and seemed to know intuitively how to stay on the right side of her people.
This was a great read. It was first published in 1998 and then again in 2007 in paperback.
A Year Unfolding by Angela Harding, A printmaker’s view, is a lovely book. I asked Jack to buy me a copy for our fairly recent wedding anniversary. Actually it was supposed to be for my birthday but he didn’t get around to getting a copy fast enough for that!