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Weir.
July 17, 2012
1:04 pm
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Louise
Hampshire, England
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Bella, it is the author, Weir. She’s been rating since September last year, and has also written some unpleasant and patronising reviews on Amazon. She’s actually had some critical comments on her reviews. She’s never denied it’s her.
Olga, I don’t put Starkey on a pedestal. He is very arrogant and a bit of an oddball, but whatever he’s like as a person, his books are brilliantly researched and written. If Weir is insecure it’s sad that she feels the need to project her insecurity onto other authors. Starkey certainly didn’t deserve a mere 2 stars for his six wives book, and by giving him one seems a tad pathetic from a woman who should know better.

July 17, 2012
1:39 pm
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DuchessofBrittany
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Olga, I don’t put Starkey on a pedestal. I believe his work in history is thorough and concise. Whatever his issues with Wier are/were, are his own. I don’t appreciate when people like Weir, who write for mass consumption, dismiss good historical research.
As for writers being insecure. Heck, I’m one of the most insecure people around, but I do not decry others to make myself feel more validated. If Weir, or any other author, is that insecure, then they need to seek professional help. Not eveyone is going to fawn over them, so they needs to join the real world.

"By daily proof you shall find me to be to you both loving and kind" Anne Boleyn

July 17, 2012
2:01 pm
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Boleyn
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Olga. Agree totally I found Antonia Frazer’s book very good, and I certainly found a different person to the one I thought AOC was. Again AOC is another one of history’s mysteries we know so very little about her.
I find Starkey’s book can be very brutal at times, but then he’s a straight forward no nonsence sort of writer, and sometimes that can be a little offputting for amatuer historians. Personally I like his in your face no nonsence style of writing, and to me at least his books offer up a challenge to the reader to dare you to say different.
In some ways I can see Weir point saying that our site is a fan club, we all joined as we love Anne and all she stood for, but it’s much more than that and that’s where Weir slips up in her arguement. We all throw ideas into a bit pot and stir it to see what comes out and between us all we’ve come out with some very possible answers to the mysteries that formed part of our past. Again we may not always agree with each others ideas but the whole point is they produce lively debate. If we all thought the same about one subject then indeed this site and many others like this would be just fan clubs nothing more.
Yes again I agree I’ve made some wonderful freinds via this site and I’m actually amazed on just how many people from other countries have joined.
Lets just say we are all one big happy family.. and a very diverse and interesting one too..Long may we continue to be so too.

Semper Fidelis, quod sum quod

July 17, 2012
3:17 pm
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Neil Kemp
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I find Starkey to be arrogant, pompous and full of his own self-worth. I do however rate what he writes, I don’t have to like the man to appreciate his work, although I find Simon Schama’s work of equal merit and done in a much more down to earth style. Boleyn, I think you are correct in stating that we are one big happy family. We may not agree about everything (what family does!), but at the end of the day we all manage to stay friends debating a subject we all love. Weir may be wrong in what she has done but I do think it’s a bit unkind to say she needs professional help and to get in the real world. I come on here at the moment to escape the “real world”, I would like to think that doesn’t mean I require professional help!Wink
We can all be insecure and exaggerate our worth to others to bolster our self-esteem, but let’s not stoop to Weir’s level. Simple choice, vote with our pockets. Buy what we know to be good and ignore the bad. Different people will have different tastes, depending on what they want from a book, we will never change that but we can perhaps shout about what is good. (Are readers who like Weir known as Weirdo’s? Just a thought!Smile)
Well, that’s my ramble for the day, thank you for “listening”. Today, in this corner of Kent, the weather has been sunny and warm, I think I may need to lie down to recover from the shock!Smile

July 17, 2012
3:48 pm
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DuchessofBrittany
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Perhaps I was a little unkind is noting the professional help, but it was not solely directed to Weir. I apologise if I’ve offended. I would also never suggest people who like Weir are weirdos. Her books just are not to my taste. I feel the same thing about my other love, anthropology. There are many writers I enjoy, other I hate. To your point, Neil about voting with our pocket. I agree, so I don’t buy her books. Why is is Neil, you always make me feel like I’ve recieved a dressing down by my dad? Wink
Again, I never meant to offend, and I am sorry.

"By daily proof you shall find me to be to you both loving and kind" Anne Boleyn

July 17, 2012
4:01 pm
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Louise
Hampshire, England
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Wow, Duchess you’re brave! Anthropology? I have to say that as a family lawyer I have about as much of humanity as I can take without studying the buggers!!Laugh

I’ve just discovered how to do these little faces and am having great fun with them.Kiss

July 17, 2012
5:08 pm
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Neil Kemp
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Duchess, you didn’t offend and the suggestion about weirdo’s was my own cheeky invention for lovers of Weir books. I’m probably older than your dad so if it sounded like a telling off just think of it as your act of charity for the elderly in taking it so well.Wink

July 17, 2012
5:42 pm
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Sharon
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You guys crack me up! Kiss
Neil, I hope if you are going to lay down, you will be doing so outside in the sunshine. You never know when you’ll get another chance. Wink
I read Weir sometimes. I don’t read PG. And I believe I am done with Mantel’s fiction books, too. Three less things to get upset about. I will only read the books of those I trust to have a good grip on their history. Fussy me! It’s like Neil said, I vote by buying books written by authors I trust. When I first started reading history books instead of only fiction, Weir was one of the first authors I read. I thought I was so smart because I could follow what she wrote. That was a long time ago, and my choices of what I read today differ greatly from when I first started out.
Starkey can be as snarky as he wants. As long as he continues to write great history books, I’ll live with his arrogance.
As to the reviews of Claire and Susan Lipscomb’s books, it sounds like Weir doesn’t like books by authors who base their writing on known historical fact and stay away from the absurd.

July 17, 2012
7:08 pm
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Olga
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Oh well as long as no-one has a Starkey shrine in their bedroom Laugh I do love his books, I just have a personal gripe with historians sniping at other historians or authors in their books. Weir, of course, does it too. They all need a good foot up the backside as far as I’m concerned.

I actually avoid meeting authors I like in person in case they upset me and I don’t want to read their books anymore. I’ll never forget reading some Q&A’s with Brian Jacques (a children’s author) and being horrified at how arrogant he was to some of his fans, most of them are around the 12 year old mark. I wanted to scrub out my eyes. I won’t even go into things I’ve heard Anne McCaffrey and Robert Jordan say, I just avoid author interviews if I can. It can really make me lose respect for them.
I’m not sticking up for Weir, by the way. It’s pretty disgusting (although I can’t seem to find this page, only her author page) but I’m just not surprised.

July 17, 2012
8:47 pm
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Louise
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I decided against the Starkey shrine in my bedroom, Olga. I don’t sleep very well as it is, and a Starkey shrine may mean irrevocable insomnia, probable nightmares and possible insanity, although on the plus side I’ll be able to quote intellectual historical knowledge through my dribble!

July 17, 2012
10:48 pm
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Anyanka
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Olga said

As for authors acting professionally, I talk to a lot of authors. Some of them suffer from horrible insecurity, I encountered one earlier this year who posts every single review of his book he can find, whether it be a 15 year old blogger from Germany or a professional reviewer, and then sets his fans onto people who don’t like his book (I was torn somewhere between horror and hysteria as I watched a large group of people discussing how stupid I was)

Sounds like boy-bands afns doo….very high schoolish behaviour..

Social media exposes all sorts of things, and being relatively new, some authors are just not used to being on public display.
Weir certainly did say groups on the internet were like fan clubs, I thought she mentioned something like cults actually but I can’t remember. I also suspected she meant this group in particular when she said it, but then Weir is from a different generation and some of them don’t understand making friends on the internet *shrug* or the value of communities like this.

A lot of us do, though. Especially as some of us have been here from the very start of the internet. I’ve “met” so many wonderful, silly, loyal, smart people on the web.

It's always bunnies.

July 18, 2012
12:05 am
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Boleyn
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Neil Kemp said

I find Starkey to be arrogant, pompous and full of his own self-worth. I do however rate what he writes, I don’t have to like the man to appreciate his work, although I find Simon Schama’s work of equal merit and done in a much more down to earth style. Boleyn, I think you are correct in stating that we are one big happy family. We may not agree about everything (what family does!), but at the end of the day we all manage to stay friends debating a subject we all love. Weir may be wrong in what she has done but I do think it’s a bit unkind to say she needs professional help and to get in the real world. I come on here at the moment to escape the “real world”, I would like to think that doesn’t mean I require professional help!Wink
We can all be insecure and exaggerate our worth to others to bolster our self-esteem, but let’s not stoop to Weir’s level. Simple choice, vote with our pockets. Buy what we know to be good and ignore the bad. Different people will have different tastes, depending on what they want from a book, we will never change that but we can perhaps shout about what is good. (Are readers who like Weir known as Weirdo’s? Just a thought!Smile)
Well, that’s my ramble for the day, thank you for “listening”. Today, in this corner of Kent, the weather has been sunny and warm, I think I may need to lie down to recover from the shock!Smile

Yes Neil it has, and I actually managed to get 2 lines of laundry dry too. I think I’m going to have to book an appointment with the doctor I keep having Hallicinations that it’s sunny and warm.. Must be the rain rusting up the inside of my nut.. However it’s back to rain tommorrow and Thursday We’ve got the olympic torch coming through Gillingham Thursday I can only hope that the rain will put it out. I know where I would like to shove it.. LOL

Semper Fidelis, quod sum quod

July 18, 2012
3:21 am
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Olga
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Louise said

I decided against the Starkey shrine in my bedroom, Olga. I don’t sleep very well as it is, and a Starkey shrine may mean irrevocable insomnia, probable nightmares and possible insanity, although on the plus side I’ll be able to quote intellectual historical knowledge through my dribble!

LOL Louise!

July 18, 2012
4:38 am
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Bella44
New Zealand
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Louise said

Bella, it is the author, Weir. She’s been rating since September last year, and has also written some unpleasant and patronising reviews on Amazon. She’s actually had some critical comments on her reviews. She’s never denied it’s her.
Olga, I don’t put Starkey on a pedestal. He is very arrogant and a bit of an oddball, but whatever he’s like as a person, his books are brilliantly researched and written. If Weir is insecure it’s sad that she feels the need to project her insecurity onto other authors. Starkey certainly didn’t deserve a mere 2 stars for his six wives book, and by giving him one seems a tad pathetic from a woman who should know better.

Wow, that’s really her? I gotta say that’s pretty pathetic. My estimation of her just went down a bit…. which is awkward as I’m reading one of her books at the moment, one of her historical novels that I’m actually enjoying…. Yell

Neil, does that make me a Weirdo?! Laugh

July 18, 2012
8:57 am
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Neil Kemp
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Bella, perhaps it does! But in the nicest possible way of course.Smile

July 18, 2012
9:05 am
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Neil Kemp
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Boleyn, the torch passes by some 150 yards from my house on Thursday, but I will be more concerned about getting my dog out for her walk (not too far as she’s poorly) without disruption from the crowds! I will watch the Olympics with interest when they start, but I will be glad when this protracted run up to the event is over and done with (must be getting old and grumpy – don’t answer thatWink).

July 18, 2012
10:43 am
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Louise
Hampshire, England
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Bella, I’ve never read any of Weir’s fiction. I’ve only read ‘The Lady in the Tower’ and her ‘Mary Boleyn’ book. It was hard to read either of them through the tears, but that was mainly because of the knitting needles I was sticking in my eyes as self punishment for reading them in the first place!
I understand the comment that you should vote with your pocket and not buy them, but it’s kind of like ulcers on your tongue. You nibble at them even though it hurts like hell. I can’t wait to see what she’ll come up with next, even though it hurts. Actually I suppose that means that Weir is my human equivalent of a tongue ulcer.Cry

July 18, 2012
2:08 pm
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Boleyn
Kent.
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Louise, purely out of interest, what branch of law do you practice in? The reason I ask is because I find at least that History and Law always seem to go hand in hand with one another.

Many years ago I read a few books on Law and was looking into going to college to study it more in depth, but the colleges where I was living at the time didn’t even do a basic law degree. Plenty of courses on cookery, pottery and needlework, but nothing with any substance, or interest.

Anyway what little I have read has served me well. Especially when it came to things to do with my Ex Husband, LOL enough said. Lets just put it this way “Non Est Factum” (Basic translation “Not of my doing”) came in handy..

Semper Fidelis, quod sum quod

July 18, 2012
2:13 pm
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Boleyn
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Neil Kemp said

Boleyn, the torch passes by some 150 yards from my house on Thursday, but I will be more concerned about getting my dog out for her walk (not too far as she’s poorly) without disruption from the crowds! I will watch the Olympics with interest when they start, but I will be glad when this protracted run up to the event is over and done with (must be getting old and grumpy – don’t answer thatWink).

Neil You don’t happen to go shopping at Tesco’s do you? If you do we’ve probably passed each other and had the odd chat with each other a dozen times or more. LOL. Are you collecting the luggage Tokens? I’m not but I’m happy to give mine to someone who is.. We usually go on a Friday shopping, look out for me you can’t miss me I walk with a stick and limp terribly, but I am always freindly with everyone..

Semper Fidelis, quod sum quod

July 18, 2012
2:54 pm
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Neil Kemp
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Boleyn, I do shop at Tesco’s, but in Margate, some miles from your area. The torch runs through Thanet during Thursday morning (Margate around 11) so I’m not sure how it gets to the Rochester area the same day!? (perhaps they cheat!Wink).

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