Reading Plaidy - May 2016

More than a year ago I promised to post about my progress with reading through the Plaidy books.  Then I totally failed to post a single thing.  I will rectify that right, now!

Epitaph for Three Women is just not sitting with me.  I have no idea why, because Katherine de Valois! Jeanne d'Arc!  But I think I'm just too eager to get to Margaret of Anjou, and the wars, and I have to admit that I'm disappointed in myself.

I have been variously dipping into a couple of the Georgian books, but not actually finishing them, and during a recent visit to a library that is not the one I work for, I borrowed what is technically the first of the Tudor saga, Uneasy Lies the Head, but which I tend to think of as I'm reading it as the end of the Plantaganet Saga, even though I was trying really, really hard to read them properly in order.  But see above re finding EfTW frustrating.

I've now bought Red Rose of Anjou, but ULtH needs to go back to the library fairly shortly, (actually, I have, just this moment, renewed it online) so unless I decide to be good and go back, yet again, to EfTW, I'll be working my way through the book of the first Tudor king.

Reading Plaidy - "Epitaph for three women", pt 1

To set the scene: Epitaph is book 12 in the 14-book Plantagenet Saga.  I've read this saga in order: no dipping in and out, no random reading of certain titles because I'm more interested in them than in other titles.  The saga starts with Eleanor of Aquitane who marries Henry II of England, and follows all the way through to Richard III in The Sun in Splendour.

Epitaph is set in the reign of Henry VI, the baby King.  I'm not sure who I expected the "three women" of the title to be, but I was a little surprised that they were Katherine, the Dowager Queen of England; Joan of Arc; and Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester.  It actually makes sense that it's these three: all of them have roles in Shakespearean plays, making them better known that most women of the historical period.  And as I said, I don't know who I was expecting the three women to be, given that Margaret of Anjou clearly gets the whole next book in the series, Red Rose of Anjou, to herself.

The book is divided into three parts, one named for each of the women, however the story of each part is not limited to the namesake; I'm still in the first part, but Eleanor Cobham who will become Duchess of Gloucester, has already appeared (and become the mistress of the Duke of Gloucester).

I'm finding the romance of the Dowager Queen and Owen Tudor awkward to read.  There's a separate book in the Queen's of England series about Katherine of France: it will be interesting to see if that's a separate story or really just a re-working of what she'd (I think) already written in this.  (I'm too lazy to check the publication dates right now.)

So those are my early thoughts on Epitaph.

Welcome to "Reading Plaidy"

Somewhere - and yes, I'm trying to find it - there's an infographic or ten describing various types of reader.  As in, you read one book at a time, or several, or only a single genre, or everything etc.

As anyone who looks at my Currently Reading on Goodreads knows, I'm a "lots of books at a time" reader.

And because I've been enjoying the way I've been blogging about the Morland Chronicles, I thought I might start doing the same with the Jean Plaidy books I'm also working my way through.

As a result: welcome to "Reading Plaidy".

For the last few years I've been working my way through the Plantagenet Saga, but I have been known to skip around to other Sagas occasionally when I get bored or frustrated.  For example, I've read The Murder in the Tower, which is book 1 in the Stuart Saga.  I will get to the rest of the Stuart Saga soon - possibly sooner rather than later because of my current Morland (The Oak Apple) - but for now my main Plaidy is Epitaph for Three Women, in the Plantagenet Saga.

For the sake of record keeping, the books I've read so far:

Norman: Bastard King

Plantagenet: Plantagenet Prelude, Revolt of the Eaglets, Heart of a Lion, Prince of Darkness, Battle of the Queens, Queen from Provence, Hammer of the Scots, Follies of the King, Vow on the Heron, Passage to Pontefract, Star of Lancaster

Tudor: Mary, Queen of France;

Stuart: Murder in the Tower, Three Crowns

Victoria: Captive of Kensington Palace

I think that's all of them.  I've started a couple of the England's Queens, but I'm not listing them until I've finished them!

So - stay tuned for my first Reading Plaidy post: part one of Epitaph for Three Women.