Elizabeth's Women: Friends, Rivals, and Foes who Shaped the Virgin Queen

barbara — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 16:00:00 +0000

Tracy Borman’s book, Elizabeth’s Women: The Hidden Story of the Virgin Queen, is an account of the women in the court of Queen Elizabeth I, and her relationship with them. As an avid reader of historical accounts of royals, I found this particular book to be notable for a number of reasons. It was well written, honest, and reflected Borman’s passion for the life of Queen Elizabeth I. It also draws upon issues in female leadership that are still relevant today.

First and foremost, what makes this a powerful read is Bowman’s ability to convey her passion for Elizabeth’s life, without painting a romanticized account of her leadership style and relationship with the women around her. She paints her not as a sanctified royal, but rather in a very human light. However, this humanization is not meant to make the reader pity or love Elizabeth more. For example, I remember reading Lady Antoina Fraser’s biographical work, Marie Antoinette: The Journey . Despite being an interesting and historical read, the sympathetic tone interfered with the authenticity of the book. In contrast, Borman does not try to apologise for any of the inequalities that Elizabeth perpetuated. Instead, she tries to show the roles played by the various female courtiers and relatives around her, and ultimately, Elizabeth’s role as a woman in a man’s world, and how the other women around her played into that. Rather than showing her as a revolutionary feminist figure, as others may try to paint her, Bowman’s account is very sober. It was refreshing to read about women I had not heard about before. Through the discussion of women in Elizabeth’s court, Borman also explores the influence of the private sphere on Elizabeth’s public life, and it was very interesting to learn about.

While many accounts have romanticized Elizabeth’s life in the bedroom, Borman steers clear of the topic. What was most profound for me was learning about the influence of women on Elizabeth’s leadership style. I have read a number of articles and accounts commenting on the relationship of Elizabeth with the men in court, but only vague references to her relationship to the women around her. Rather than holding her on a pedestal, Borman is able to convey the conflicts Elizabeth had with her own sex. I was reminded of debates surrounding more contemporary female leaders, and their relationships to “femininity.”

Elizabeth’s Women is rich in historical accounts, easy to read and enthralling. Beautifully written and thought-provoking, Elizabeth’s Women is one of the most impressive books I have read this year.

Written by: Sara Yasin, November 7th 2010

No Humans Involved

admin — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 00:46:00 +0000

By Kelley Armstrong

Bantam

A home in Brentwood, California is being used to house the stars and staff of the TV reality special Death of Innocence, where three mediums demonstrate their powers. Only one of them Jaime Vegas is the real thing, a talented necromancer who can see and talk to the dead. The climax of the special is to contact Marilyn Monroe, but Jaime’s interest in the show is that she is touched by ghosts and hears their chatter, but can’t make out what they are saying, which has never happened to her before.

She can’t reach out to them, but through empirical evidence she comes to the conclusion that they are children who were killed using blood magic. They are stuck in between places and neither another medium nor Jaime’s ghostly friends can reach them. The demon Aratron tells Jaime that the magic being used to keep the children in limbo is something unheard of. Now Jaime and her allies and her werewolf lover Jeremy, the North American alpha werewolf, try to set a trap that would bring the magic practitioners out of hiding so that Jaime can find a way to let the children pass over.

Jaime has some interesting allies on both sides of the veil including a half demon with chaos powers, a spirit in life that was a practitioner of the dark arts and now works for the Three Fates, and a werewolf. All of these characters are well developed, play significant parts in the story and are powerful beings not to be trifled with. Kelly Armstrong writes spellbinding supernatural fantasy in the tradition of Laurell K. Hamilton, Kim Harrison, and Charlaine Harris. There is plenty of action and a heated romance in No Humans Involved.

Written by: Harriet Klausner, April 18th 2007