Reading the Moreland Chronicles: "The Founding", pt 1

Cynthia Harrod-Eagles' "Moreland Chronicles" is an unfinished multi-volume family saga intertwined with British history from the 1430s to the 20th Century.

I plan to post as I read through the Moreland Chronicles with observations and comments.  I can't guarantee to read the books continuously, and I will need to get some of the in from other libraries, but each week while I'm reading a Moreland book, I will post. (Or at least attempt to do so.)

Book 1 - The Founding

The Moreland Chronicles begin in the reign of Henry VI.  Eleanor Courtney is the ward of Edmund Beaufort, uncle to the King, from the Swynford line.  She is married to a farmer, Robert Moreland, son of Edward Morland, whose house stands just beyond the gates of York.  But Eleanor, married late by the standards of her day, has already given her heart to Richard, the 3rd Duke of York (father of the future Edward IV of England.)

Where I am now: page 168 - Eleanor has been married to Robert Moreland for enough years that her eldest daughter is fifteen and herself married into Eleanor's Courteney relations.  Robert has risen, in great part through the ideas and influence of Eleanor, to be a great merchant of the north of England.  The family's  marital allegiance to Edmund Beaufort and Eleanor's emotional attachment to the Duke of York are beginning to cause tensions for the Morelands as the rifts that will eventually become the Wars of the Roses grow deeper.

Comments: I love, love, love the agency of Eleanor within a time period when we tend to view women as very passive.  Yet, Eleanor is far removed from court, and the episode when she goes out with the men to defend her husband's flocks reads as entirely possible, although not the sort of thing likely to make it into the formal histories.  I adore her tomboy daughter Isabella, and look so much forward to seeing what happens to Isabella through the years, moreso than Helen (although that's totally authorial bias.  You're drawn away from Helen at this point.)

I'm really enjoying this life of people removed from the royals of the time - as much as I love Plaidy and Gregory, this is a gorgeous telling of the story from that one level removed.

Goodreads tells me I'm 31% through the book so far.  I'm looking forward to the upcoming 69%.

Wednesday reads, sort of - 20 August 2014

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the Earth, although I don't blame you for thinking I had.

I'm just snowed under by an adverse roster at work, and various other brain-and-time related issues.

I haven't really been reading much, either.

Poor old Hild is getting sent back to her home library without having been read, and Hugo-winner Mary Robinette Kowal's Glass and Glamor is having the same treatment.  I hope to get them back and actually READ them this time before the end of the year.

I'm working on Plady's Star of Lancaster on my Kobo app on iPad, and Captains of the Soul in tree-book, and I've also picked up (but haven't actually started reading yet) the first book in Cynthia Harrod-Eagles' ridiculously long and yet unfinished Morland Dynasty, The Founding. 

Wednesday Reads - 23 July

Some things never change... But at least I'm posting on Wednesday?

What I've just finished reading:
A Lesson for Lina, by Sally Rippin
Passion's Bright Fury, by Radclyffe
Madam President, by Blayne Cooper and T Novan

What I'm reading now:
First Lady, by Blayne Cooper and T Novan
The Star of Lancaster, by Jean Plaidy
Bonegilla: 'A Place of No Hope', by Glenda Sluga

Musketeer Space, by Tansy Rayner Roberts

What I'll read next:

Hild, by Nicola Griffiths. Really. 

Wednesday Reads (on a Thursday night, again) - 17 July

I'd change it to Thursday reads, but then I'd probably just end up posting on Fridays.

What I've just finished reading

The Captive of Kensington Palace, by Jean Plaidy

- as I said last week, I never really intended to read the Victoria books, but it was one of those moments when they were just There. It has confirmed that I definitely want to read the Georgian saga, however. 

The One, by Kiera Cass.  This was basically a scan-read to find out how the story ended.  I did enjoy it, and I have to admit that a blurb quote mentioning The Selection as something that would interest readers of Allie Condie's Matched has got me interested in Matched.

What I'm reading now

Musketeer Space, by Tansy Rayner Roberts - the serialised genderbending Musketeers in space.

Escape from Cockatoo Island, by Yvette Poshoglian

What I'll be reading next
Hild.  Really.

Wednesday Reads (on a Thursday night) - 10 July 2014

What I've finished reading:
Blue Holes to Terror, by Trish Kocialski
Helping Little Star, by Blaze Kwaymullina and Sally Morgan

What I'm reading now:
The Captive of Kensington Palace, by Jean Plaidy - I never really meant to read the Victoria books.  I guess I'm reading them now.
Four Queens, by Nancy Goldstone - picked it up again one morning this week when I couldn't sleep.  Really enjoying it now that I'm back into it.
The Shadow of Saganami, by David Weber - I needed something lightweight to read on the bus trip to OzComicCon, that was on my Kobo.
Deadly Challenge, by Trish Kocialski

What I'll read next:
Hild, by Nicola Griffiths
A Lesson for Lina, by Sally Rippin
The One, by Kiera Cass


I have some ideas for this blog into the future and I hope that I'll get working on those plans sooner rather than later.

Wednesday Reads - 2 July 2014

I'm on holidays from work this week, so I'm consciously staying away from my ponderings about library users as citizens.

But I am doing some reading!

This may or may not represent current or future reading.

What I've just finished reading:
Forces of Evil by Trish Kocialski (e/web)
The Maid and the Queen by Nancy Goldstone (review to come soon)

What I'm reading now:
Helping Little Star by Sally Morgan and Blaze Kwaymullina
Blue Holes to Terror by Trish Kocialski (e/web)
Musketeer Space by Tracy Rayner Roberts - a serialised gender-swapped retelling of The Three Musketeers set in space.  I'm contributing to this project through Patreon.

What I'll read next:

Hild.  Definitely Hild.  Also The One.

Wednesday reads - 25 June 2014

Getting back into the groove of this one (I hope):

What I've just finished reading:
Jean Plaidy's The Murder in the Tower (ebook) - disappointing, for a Plaidy.  I guess I was hoping for a lot more about James I and Charles I, and she seems to have focused on Charles II and thereafter with the Stuart books.  I do think I'll enjoy the books about Mary and Anne when I get there.

The Agency, by Y S Lee - Awesome.  My only quibble is how easy it was to forget that it was Victorian and assume it was Regency.  I don't know if that's because I'm so used to reading Regency, or whether the setting just wasn't *quite* explicit enough.  But I really enjoyed it, and have the next two on my TBR pile.  (It's a very big pile.)

What I'm reading now:
I'm doing my usual: in the middle of far too many things all at once.

The Maid and the Queen, by Nancy Goldstone.  The third Goldstone I've started and probably the first I'll finish.  Which isn't to say I don't like the other two, I've just been more easily distracted by them.  This one is about Joan of Arc (the Maid) and Yolande of Aragon (the Queen - of Sicily) and Yolande's influence on the reception of Joan.  Seriously fascinating, and will make for a good review post given that I'll have to mention Tessa Duder's Song for Alex and Shaw's Joan as well.

The Body in the Tower, by Y S Lee.  Second in the Mary Quinn/Agency series.

Also on my Goodread's "Currently Reading" list: The Lord's Day (Michael Dobbs), Passage to Pontefract (e) (Jean Plaidy), Escape from Cockatoo Island (Yvonne Poshoglian) and Four Queens (Nancy Goldstone).

What I'll read next:
Hild, by Nicola Griffiths
The One, by Kiera Cass
Our Man in Tehran (e), by Robert Wright
Glamour in Glass, by Mary Robinette Kowal

among others...

... by the way - it's still Wednesday somewhere in the US.