A majestic stroll through time

Would you try another book written by Alison Weir or narrated by Maggie Mash?

I would enjoy another book by Alison Weir as i enjoy her books and Maggie mash is a pleasant reader

Would you be willing to try another book from Alison Weir? Why or why not?

Yes, Alison Weir writes interesting books, both fiction and non-fiction

Which character – as performed by Maggie Mash – was your favourite?

The Spanish ambassadors

Do you think Elizabeth of York needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

Yes, we probably need a biography of the forgotten Tudor heiress Margaret Tudor, she is ignored in favor of her brother and his children.

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3 people found this helpful

Good history, shame about the narration

Alison Weir's research is always pretty good but this was completely marred by the outrageous and dreadful foreign accents used by Maggie Mash whenever there was a quotation from a source. Later on, she subjects us to awful regional British accents too and would have done far better to have just read it straight.
I am pretty sure I won't plump for anything with this narrator again- far too distracting.

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1 person found this helpful

Great story!

I dint buy this for months as the reviews werent great and i was unsure as i didnt want to waste a credit. I wish i had got it sooner!
If you watched the White princess and enjoyed it this is great and it looks at things in more detail. some things in the TV show didnt really happen they are dramatised but it is a good start.
It's a great look at the early tudors and i will be listening to this again and again!

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accents unnecessary and intrusive

this is a great book and Maggie Mash as herself is a great reader. however, whoever decided that 'doing all the voices' was a good idea should have rethought it. pointless and intrusive, it spoiled the flow of the book for me. tone could help distinguish quoting rather than often daft accents being adopted

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A great book.

Just like Alison Weir makes history interesting . Once I started this book I had to finish it.

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2 people found this helpful

The first Tudor queen.

I found it a bit confusing at times and am trying to work out why the narrator used a kind of Spanish accent when reading quotes. But I'm going to read it again to try and make more sense of what could be a good book.

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1 person found this helpful

Insight into domestic life of the period

In spite of the author's claims I did not really share her assumption about the extent of Elizabeth of York's influence. she was the daughter of two very powerful and forceful parents Edward IV and Elizabeth. Elizabeth came of age at a very dangerous time as Henry Tudor was about to make his assault on the realm then led by Richard III. It seems Richard was thinking of marrying his niece Elizabeth - a plan which Henry Tudor also had in mind. Although Elizabeth seems to have participated actively in obtaining a marriage which would make her queen; her life henceforth would be very much one of a devout and devoted spouse. Not only did she have a husband who knew his own mind and had a clear vision of where he wanted to take England but she also had a powerful mother-in-law who had managed to survive the turbulence of Edward's reign and fulfill her ambition of seeing her son Henry in power. Elizabeth's main role of course was to produce an heir, a task she managed to perform to the satisfaction of all. The interest of her life was in the abundance of detail the author could provide regarding domestic life - clothes, expenditure on jewels and furnishings and other items related to the household. These careful accounts provide us too with a vivid picture of how wide the gap was between the ordinary citizen and the court. The queen was not overly materialistic and she was always very generous and gave considerable amounts to charity. Henry VII who has gone down in history as a miser surprised me with some of his lavish spending on his wife with whom he seems to have maintained a monogomous way of life which, in those times was really quite exceptional.
I enjoyed the book immensely in spite of having to grit my teeth every time the narrator did those awful foreign accents trying to imitate Italian and French ambassadors and I did not really appreciate her trying to do male voices either. The narrator reads perfectly well in her normal voice so I was able to continue listening right to the end.
I cannot say I took away a picture of a particularly memorable character but I did gain a great deal of insight into the mores and social customs of the period which made the read most worthwhile.

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8 people found this helpful

Too much information

Elizabeth is an interesting life story but we don't need all the lists of her butchers, bakers and candlestick makers and how much she paid them. narrator's change of voice for quotes was bizarre. Can't recommend.

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2 people found this helpful

Very well researched but so drawn out

You can't fault Alison Weir's research which was meticulous, with a lot of detail about expenditure, clothing and ceremonial but given that this is a very very long book, I didn't feel I had learned much about Elizabeth herself beyond that she was obviously well loved and seemed like a kind and thoughtful person. There really isn't enough known about her beyond her recorded activities, children and donations etc to warrant the length of this book . You get a sense of the good relationship she had with Henry and probably the rest of her family, but there a LOT of assumptions made and "she must haves" without real foundation which i did find at times highly questionable. How do we know what her relationship with her mother was like? though the book assumes closeness (for example. ...) Also far too many details of costs incurred, then converted to modern value, which got unbelievably tedious and felt like padding. Well read though with some interesting material.

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A long book containing not much material

Obviously Weir has done her research conscientiously and has written a conscientious book based on it. The trouble is that not a huge amount is actually known about Elizabeth. So there is a fair amount of surmise and supposition based on Weir's knowledge of the practises and behaviour of the time period. She would have done better to have restricted the size of the book.

The personal information about Elizabeth frequently comes from accounts. Admittedly, these can be a valuable source of infomation but they can be extremely tedious to listen to when presented in big dollops of "£x s/d worth £z p today". I think that some of these could have been presented in an appendix or separate chapter for those who would like skip over them. I would find them more acceptable in a written copy if presented this way.

Maggie Mash reads acceptably as long as she is doing just that. However her attempts at different voices and accents (especially men's voices) are poor and frankly quite irritating. I dislike her asa narrator and hesitated to buy this book on that account.

I've given the book a good try, but am tempted to return it.

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