Charlie Fenton > Recent Status Updates

‘It became important for these powerful men that their children should attend classes arranged for Edward and Elizabeth... In about 1545, they were joined by Edward Seymour, Hertford’s son; Henry Brandon, who had recently succeeded as 2nd Duke of Suffolk; and Robert Dudley, despite them being a few years older. This brought Robert, who was 12, into close contact with his contemporary, the Princess Elizabeth.’

‘The chief cook in the royal household was John Bricket. Although he was entitled ‘the King’s master cook’, his responsibilities extended far beyond the King’s Privy Kitchen to embrace the operation of the whole kitchen complex, from the larder doors through to the dresser hatches where the food was despatched to the dining areas.’

Audiobook version, not on here.

‘In early sixteenth century England sugar cost around 3d or 4d a pound (450g), but its growing popularity and scarcity saw it rise to 9d or 10d by 1544, when its price had to be checked by royal proclamation.’

‘The District 12 girl? Could there be a bigger slap in the face? District 12, the smallest district, the joke district, with its stunted, joint-swollen kids that always died in the first five minutes, and not only that... but the girl? Not that a girl couldn’t win, but in his mind the Hunger Games were largely about brute force, and the girls were naturally smaller than the boys and therefore at a disadvantage’

‘The cheapest candles used at the palace were called white lights. These were distributed by weight, a duke receiving a pound (450g) a day, for example, and each courtier and upper household servant eight ounces (225g). In the late fifteenth century the royal household was still using pieces of bread to hold the smaller candles; the first yeoman of the chandlery would draw loaves from the Pantry for this’

‘Catherine deflated visibly when the truth became clear. Only $10,000 in assets har been discovered to pay out to Radium Dial’s victims. If they won their case. It wasn’t a drop in the bucket compared to the medical expenses they’d already compiled, and each of the women present faced a future filled with continued medical expenses and no cure in sight.’

“The crux of the matter is that Radium Dial carries no workmen’s compensation insurance because they have been denied by ten different companies. Rather than discontinuing the operations that made them uninsurable, they carried the risk themselves and have attempted to hide their assets to minimise their responsibility to my clients.”

‘She knew that her body faintly glowed in these predawn hours because of the radium stored in her weak, disintegrating skeleton.’

Everyone should read this book. These women were treated so awfully just for becoming ill through work and suffered as a consequence of it. Their stories still need to be heard now.

“Radium Dial has been ever watchful of your health. That is why we ran tests as soon as there was any concern. We would have shut down this studio if there was any truth to this ‘radium poisoning’ business, but that would have been a shame since Radium Dial has been such a good employer to all of us.”

‘Catherine did not think of the glowing again until several weeks later when she received the news that Della Harveston had died of tuberculosis.
Then she remembered the ghostly glow of her own body and a chill courses through her veins.’

‘Mrs Reed’s laughter was thick with condescension. “Of course, it cannot harm you! In fact,” she elaborated as she returned to her table, “the radium that gives our paint its special properties is beneficial to your health and will give your cheeks a rosy glow.”
To convince them, she took her mixing spatula and used it like a spoon to scoop up the paint and eat it.’

‘A brief glimpse at the history of the Tower during the later years of Mary’s reign and early days of Elizabeth’s, nevertheless, proves quite succinctly just how unstable life was during that period. For poor John Feckenham, imprisoned for resisting the Reformation before enjoying some renewed status under Mary, he would once again endure the confines of the Tower under Elizabeth‘

Audiobook version (not on here)

‘Invented by lieutenant of the Tower, Sir Leonard Skeffington, much has been made of the mysterious ‘Skeffington’s Daughter’ or ‘Skeffington’s Gyves’. An expert on the rack, Sir Leonard endeavoured to create a device capable of achieving the opposite effect, literally compressing the victim as opposed to stretching them.’

‘It was around this time the Yeomen of the Guard came into existence, the predecessors of the modern-day yeoman warders. Though the menagerie continued to thrive, Henry personally abhorred the cruelty suffered by the animals and was especially livid on learning that two mastiff dogs had been deliberately set upon a lion.’

‘Her reluctance was understandable. The position of queen consort in this realm has indeed become fraught with hazards. It is now high treason for a woman with a dubious past to marry the King without first declaring that she has led an impure life. And once she is married to him, she must take care that, like Caesar’s wife, she remains above suspicion.’

‘One of Henry VII’s early acts was to liberate the brave victim of Yorkist England, Henry Wyatt, whose dirty skin would soon tingle in the warm waters enjoyed by a Knight of the Bath. It is also perhaps the Tower’s most ironic story that in sight of the hellish prison that had once been his home, the Tower would become his place of employment.’

‘Unsurprisingly, the fate of the king [Henry VI] caused quite a stir. And in certain cases - profit. As late as the Reformation, the warden of Caversham is noted as having shown interested visitors the bloody dagger Gloucester had used, a stark contradiction to the assertion by Polydore Vergil that Richard had used a sword.’

‘She pictured the intertwined ribbons of Bella’s future. Some were solid, some insubstantial, some disappearing into mist. They were more ordered now, no longer snarled into the messy knot. It was a relief that the most nightmarish of futures was entirely missing. But there, in the sturdiest thread, Bella of the bloodred eyes and diamond skin still held the most prominent place.‘

‘The marriage of Katherine to Henry was arguably the most important and influential event to have happened during Elizabeth’s youth. Katherine acted as the mother that had been missing from her life. She was a positive role model who shared many of the characteristics that would go on to define the queen that Elizabeth became: Intelligent, Protestant, strong and fiercely independent.’

“Your number was up the first time I met you.”
It was true, and it angered me. I had been positioned over her like the blade of a guillotine - as though it was ordained by fate, just as she said. As if she had been marked for death by that cruel, unjust fate, and - since I’d proved an unwilling tool - it continued to try to execute her. I imagined the fate personified, a grisly, jealous hag, a vengeful harpy’

‘The Swiss Cottage rapidly became a central part of the children’s life, their ‘very favourite spot’. They looked forward to coming to Osborne, and immediately they reached the island they would hurry over to the Swiss Cottage to see how it had all been doing in their absence, how their gardens were getting on, and whether the squirrels had left them any gooseberries or strawberries.‘

‘Initially, there were thirty-one cottages on the estate, for the most part occupied by the farm labourers and in a very bad state of repair. Families of six and seven were crammed into two rooms in ‘miserable’ cottages; ‘they are certainly very small and uncomfortable’, agreed the Queen. Improving them became part and parcel of Albert’s aspirations as a model agriculturalist.’

Some might be surprised that I’m reading this, but I felt a duty to the teenage me to do so. Nowadays people feel ashamed to admit that they read the Twilight books, but they got me through some pretty tough years and mental health problems during high school, so nice to relax with this after handing in my MA dissertation now.

‘Peeta was on to something about us destroying one another and letting some decent species take over. Because something is significantly wrong with a creature that sacrifices its children’s lives to settles its differences. You can spin it any way you like. Snow thought the Hunger Games were an efficient means of control. Coin thought the parachutes would expedite the war. But in the end, who does it benefit?’

‘But my best friend predicts I will choose the person who I think I “can’t survive without.” There’s not the least indication that love, or desire, or even compatibility will sway me. I’ll just conduct an unfeeling assessment of what my potential mates can offer me. As if in the end, it will be the question of whether a baker or a hunter will extend my longevity the most.’

‘In her 1977 Jubilee year, the Queen was determined to see as much of Britain as possible, and that Britain would see her. ‘I have to be seen to be believed,’ she said once. The Queen and Prince Philip toured thirty-six UK counties over three months and... a million people came out on one day in Lancashire alone.’

Okay the author has completely forgotten what has happened in her previous books, either that or someone else is writing it. Teddy cheated on Dana before his accident, not after! Now writing as if it was some kind of madness caused by the accident. I’d be surprised if even the narrator didn’t pick up on these errors, seeing as she narrated all the previous books.

Why change the name of a character five books in? Almost seems like the author was in a rush and had forgotten a lot of what she had written previously. Sad as I really enjoyed the others and felt invested in the characters.