A WORLD WITHOUT BOOKS

It has been a while since I've had a new blog, but my Facebook friends know there were extenuating circumstances; my hip went out of alignment so far that my chiropractor had to launch a search and rescue mission to find it and my computer woes escalated to the point where I was ready to perform an exorcism upon Demon Spawn and his evil accomplices, my printers.  I am happy to report, though, that my chiropractor has been able to work his usual magic; if this man ever decides to move, I'll just have to follow him, even if he relocates to the Falkland Islands or the arctic tundra.  And Demon Spawn finally over-reached himself, discovering that he could be replaced—in this case by a laptop as sleek and speedy as a dolphin, Melusine, named after the Demon Countess of Anjou, one of Henry II's more interesting ancestors.  So now that life has gotten back to normal—or as normal as it ever gets for a writer—I can stop neglecting my blog.

A world without books is a frightening prospect to most of us.  But despite the gloom and doom pervading the publishing industry, I don't think this dire prediction will ever come to pass.  Yes, there are people, probably millions of them, who go from year to year without even picking up a book, much less reading one.  That is certainly understandable when life is a daily struggle for survival, and it is a sad fact that in many parts of our world, illiteracy is the norm.  But what of those who have the opportunity to read and choose not to take advantage of it?  I confess I do not understand a choice like that, for to me, books are as essential as air to breathe, or almost so.  Books open so many doors for us.  They teach us about history and empathy and our common humanity.  They give us a blessed refuge from reality when our lives become too pain-filled or too hectic or too stressful.  They strengthen our friendships; what book lover has not wanted to share books with friends?   They offer entertainment and a way to exercise our imaginations.   They make us think.  And they help us to understand our own world and the world that has been obscured by the mists of time.   One of my favorite quotations is the following insightful observation by William Faulkner:   "The past is not dead.  It is not even past."    But of course that would resonate with me, wouldn't it?   I am lucky enough to be a historical novelist, after all.

Last year I was given a signal honor.  The National Public Radio asked me to choose the Five Best Historical Novels of 2011 and then to write about them.  I was delighted to have such an opportunity, although it was a challenge to narrow the field down to five.  I finally selected: Elizabeth I by Margaret George, Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks, The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman, Death of Kings by Bernard Cornwell, and The Paris Wife by Paula McLain.  But there were other historical novels I'd read and enjoyed last year, even some that were not historical.  So….being fortunate enough to have a forum, I would like to mention some of these other books, all of which I recommend with enthusiasm.

One was a first novel, a remarkable debut by Priya Parmar, Exit the Actress.   This is a well-researched and well written novel about the most celebrated of the mistresses of King Charles II—the very appealing actress Nell Gwyn.  I confess to harboring a fondness for Charles, who seems to have had a good heart as well as an overly-active libido, more charm than the law should allow, and a sardonic sense of humor.  So I was a natural audience for Exit the Actress, perhaps predisposed to like this book.  But I think Priya did justice to Charles and Nell and the other colorful characters who inhabit her re-creation of Restoration England.  I thought this book was a delight, from first page to the last.

Another book I enjoyed last year was Elizabeth Chadwick's Lady of the English.  As many of you know, I do not normally read other authors' novels about the historical figures closest to my heart.  A perfect example—I have great respect for Edith Pargeter, the British author.  I think her A Bloody Field by Shrewsbury is brilliant, and I was a great fan of the mystery series she wrote under the name Ellis Peters.  But I have not read her novels about the Welsh princes, known as The Brothers of Gwynedd quartet, for I am too emotionally invested in Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, Ellen de Montfort, and Davydd ap Gruffydd.  In the same way, I do not read other novels about Richard III, Henry II, and Eleanor of Aquitaine.  I made an exception, though, for Lady of the English.  Yes, it covers some of the same events that I dramatized in When Christ and His Saints Slept, but our approaches were different and I think that the two books complement each other rather than compete with each other.  It was very interesting for me to see Elizabeth's depiction of characters I'd written about, although in almost every case, we were on the same page.  My portrayal of Stephen's queen, Matilda, is probably more sympathetic than hers, but since the readers see Matilda only through the eyes of the empress, that makes perfect sense; she had no reason to think kindly of the usurper Stephen or his capable consort, after all.   A slight digression here as to the names, for I get asked this quite often and I am sure Elizabeth does, too.   Maude and Matilda are the same name; Maude is the vernacular, the French version, and Matilda is the Latinized form of the name.  She would have called herself Maude, but she appeared in legal documents and the Latin chronicles as Matilda.  Since she shared the name with Stephen's queen, I chose to call her Maude and use Matilda for Stephen's wife.    But whatever she is called, you will want to read about Elizabeth's empress and her friend and stepmother, Adeliza, her father's young widow, who share star billing in Lady of the Engllish.

My next recommendation is a slight departure in that it is not a historical novel.  But it is sure to interest anyone who has read The Sunne in Splendour, for Joan Szechtman has done something remarkable, something I could not do—she managed to give Richard III a happy ending.  She does this by transporting Richard from the battle at Bosworth Field just before he dies and bringing him to our time.  The novel is called This Time and is a clever, imaginative depiction of how it would be for a medieval man to find himself in a world foreign to him in every aspect.  Talk about culture shock!   And for those who read This Time and enjoy Richard's foray into the twenty-first century, I have good news.  Joan has written a sequel, Loyalty Binds Me.  My killer deadline for A King's Ransom has kept me from reading it yet, but I have no doubt that it will be as entertaining as This Time.

Other books that I read in the past year that I enjoyed include The Confessions of Catherine de Medici by C.W. Gortner and his mystery, The Tudor Secret.  Catherine de Medici is one of history's more controversial queens, but she emerges as a believable flesh-and-blood woman in Christopher's novel and his research revealed some surprising things about her; who would have guessed that she was so far ahead of her time in her concern for animals?  And his depiction of the infamous St Bartholomew's Day Massacre is riveting.  As an added bonus, he gives us one of my favorite French kings, Henri IV of Navarre, who realistically if cynically disavowed his Protestant faith to gain a crown, saying "Paris is worth a Mass."

In previous blogs, I've praised Bernard Cornwell's Saxon series, which I devoured after I was drawn in by Death of Kings, and George R.R. Martin's Ice and Fire series, which captivated me after I watched HBO's  Game of Thrones.  Margaret Frazer had a new mystery, A Play of Heresy, published in December, starring her clever, laid-back, and charming player-spy, Joliffe.   In an earlier blog, Hide Your Wallets and Checkbooks, I praised Priscilla Royal's excellent medieval mystery series set in 13th century England; her eighth book, A Killing Season, had just come out and I wanted to share my impressions with my readers.  I want to mention her novels again for the benefit of those who did not read my earlier blog.  And for a change of pace that takes us away from the past into the present, I am a huge fan of Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak Alaskan mysteries and cannot recommend them highly enough.  Her latest, Restless in the Grave, is fun to read from the first page to the last, and often had laugh-out-loud moments, which aren't always found in mysteries.

Well, now that I have—I hope—added to your TBR piles of books, it is only fair that you get to make recommendations of your own.  So I'd love to hear your views of books you've read recently and why you enjoyed them.  I'm sure I am forgetting several that I also liked this past year, but I have a stack of research books about medieval Germany on the floor and I've noticed that Holly, my little spaniel, has been eying them with too much interest.  She is usually good about confining her chewing to her own toys, but she does seem to think that anything left on the floor is fair game, so this is probably a good time to wrap this up.  I will be waiting with interest to see which books you all recommend.  We already know you guys have great taste in novels, for you like mine!

February 26, 2012