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Margaret Beaufort
- Mother of the Tudor Dynasty
- Narrated by: Debra Burton
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Biographies & Memoirs, Historical
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- By Clementi on 04-09-15
Summary
Born in the midst of the Wars of the Roses, Margaret Beaufort became the greatest heiress of her time. She survived a turbulent life, marrying four times and enduring imprisonment before passing her claim to the crown of England to her son, Henry VII, the first of the Tudor monarchs.
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What listeners say about Margaret Beaufort
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- AmySharpe2003
- 22-11-14
Amateur production, gave up listening to it.
Would you try another book written by Elizabeth Norton or narrated by Debra Burton?
I would try another book written by Elizabeth Norton but I would not listen to another book narrated by Debra Burton.
Would you be willing to try another book from Elizabeth Norton? Why or why not?
Yes. It was not the content that was irritating, just the production of the audiobook and narration.
How could the performance have been better?
Debra fudged and tripped over her words (these mistakes were left in!). She sounded like she was talking into a cassette tape machine in the bathroom (I could have done that for free). Her voice inflections and word emphasis was out of sync with the content of the story therefore it was unpleasing and difficult to listen to and absorb anything she was saying.
Was Margaret Beaufort worth the listening time?
The subject matter is very interesting and Elizabeth Norton's story may have been worth listening to, but the production irritated me so much I could not get to the end. I will have to read her book instead of listen to it.
Any additional comments?
It is a shame the story was let down by such an amateur production and narration.
8 people found this helpful
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- Gaby
- 03-04-17
Frustrating listen
This is a period I know well and wanted to learn more about the title character. The blurb was promising, the reading of it, appalling. Constant stumbling over words, emphasis on wrong words, sentences didn't flow, mis-pronunciations, general lack of fluency and energy. Reminded me of a poor reader in school, just saying the words, not reading them for pleasure. Quality of sound was abysmal. I thought there was something wrong with my sound system but no, just a job done on the cheap. Have ordered the book to read myself and returned the audio version.
5 people found this helpful
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- ruth
- 24-11-19
Poor
Really poor production. The narrator struggled with sentence construction and it sounded very amateurish. Without doubt, this is the worst Audible production that I have listened to. I'm surprised it made the grade.
2 people found this helpful
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- Stephen Dodding
- 25-01-19
Poorly narrated
Being new to Audible and having been introduced to audio books by a 19 hour flawless reading of a Bill Bryson book by a professional actor I was a bit taken aback by the quality of the narration here where barely a sentence went by without a fluff or a gulp. I found it quite off putting. I’m not sure the frequent, long winded and difficult to understand quotations of old English did much to help the flow of the narrative either. Overall though a reasonable overview of the subject.
2 people found this helpful
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- knitter
- 23-03-18
oh dear!
the subject is fastinating. Margret Beaufort is one of the most interesting women in British history and one of the least known. Unfortunatly this biography is rather academic in nature with long passages of original medevil language, The narrator could also have been better, she appears to have a throat problem and struggles with her pronunciation.
1 person found this helpful
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- iDog
- 17-05-22
appalling narration
L reasonably interesting biography, And always good to read biographies of the forgotten women that are so important to history, however this book was not as well written as I would have hoped. It didn’t flow,, and felt a little bit machinelike.
However what really spoiled it for me was the appalling narration: so many words were mispronounced (including common ones: Ely, Corfe, Lancaster, Southwark). It’s extremely frustrating when I narrator doesn’t bother to learn standard pronunciation, especially when the words are repeated regularly throughout the book. It also sounded a touch robotic with wrong emphasis in many places.
If you like the topic, then the book is worth a read. But I absolutely do not recommend listening to the audible version.
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- Beck110118
- 10-09-17
Awful Recording
I have the actual book. I'll just read it when I have time. This woman's voice is awful and it sounds like she recorded this in her bathroom! I can't stand listening!
6 people found this helpful
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- Marie A.
- 13-06-17
Poor quality performance and rushed narrative
The reading of this was of such low quality. Very unprofessional. The biography itself was rushed. so much more about Margaret could have been expanded upon. This book just rushed through her life without going in depth.
2 people found this helpful
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- Mary Elizabeth Reynolds
- 07-04-14
Good story about a questionable woman
Maybe every woman up until recent history was questionable, but the War of the Rose's produced some females that were more ruthless than the men. The author didn't change my opinion that Margaret Beaufort ranked with Margaret of Anjou as a she-devil, but i do think that Margaret Beaufort was smarter. There is new and entertaining information in this but the narration is a little off, but not badly
5 people found this helpful
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- Joanne
- 05-01-18
Love those Crazy Tudors
Would you consider the audio edition of Margaret Beaufort to be better than the print version?
I personally enjoy holding and reading a book to listening to it. That said, I have very little time actually sit down and read but AM on the road a lot. For this reason audiobooks are a GODSEND!!!
What other book might you compare Margaret Beaufort to and why?
I would say that books in this same venue would be similar to The White Queen or the Red Queen. However, those are not completely based in historical fact. It is my understanding that this book is, and perhaps one of the reasons I liked it so much is that it was still written in a way that did not feel like I was reading out of a textbook.
Which character – as performed by Debra Burton – was your favorite?
Most of the book, if not all, was from Margaret's point of view so this question does not really apply.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
Learning more about the live of Margaret before the birth of her son was the most interesting. You get a better feel for how difficult life was for her, and women in general, and just how much she went through even before the birth of Henry the VII.
Any additional comments?
I would strongly recommend this book!
1 person found this helpful
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- Lynn
- 28-09-17
Facts are fascinating.
Facts are fascinating. quality med, slightly echoy?. reader a bit too fast. Allso includes back story to White Queen series on Starz. Really enjoyed it once I started to recognize characters. All the names and titles can be a bit overwhelming to a novice English history reader.
1 person found this helpful
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- Swilson
- 11-08-21
Narration is the worst.
The narrator for this book is the worst I've heard. She is robotic and difficult to listen to. The story is just ok. I feel like it focuses too much on Henry VII.
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- Kindle Customer
- 25-01-21
A True Giant
This was a fair and balanced biography of one of history's grandest schemers and tougher women to walk this earth. Few can boast to have lived for so long while never wavering in their faith or daring to reshape destiny in their image. Margaret triumphed because she took advantage of her intellect, her money, bloodline and (eventually after many surprising events) her son's sudden status. More importantly, she never stepped into the limelight because she knew that to win the game of thrones was to play the long game: winning allies, networking, and observing so when an opportunity presented itself, she would not hesitate to act.
Margaret was a crafty politician and courtier. She was also a devoted Christian and family woman who also became known for her patronage of philosophers and other intellectuals during her son's reign.
For a woman who had the odds stacked against her, her life story is very admirable. She took the reins of her own destiny and carved a path for herself, her son and descendants that altered the course of world events.
She was a true game changer and one of the few people of whom one can undoubtedly say, made history.
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- Jennifer L. Graves
- 17-11-18
She won me over!
This biography have me a better appreciation for Margaret Beaufort's life and struggles. She had to work through the realities of having a claim to the throne while being a woman and a Royal pawn.
This books corrects some of the popular culture portrayals of her.
Awesome narrator and great historical analysis of 15th century England.