3:57 pm
October 28, 2011
Ah this should suit her ardent love of witchcraft very well
5:04 pm
May 16, 2011
8:44 pm
January 9, 2010
2:11 am
October 28, 2011
4:09 pm
January 3, 2012
If SWMNBN actually writes about a lot of how witches and warlocks etc are evil etc, and that they go around sacrificing children I will be the first to hit the roof, in fact I’ll go right through the roof. I gather this new book of hers is going to be loosely based on Paganism etc?
One word out of place and I won’t be a happy bunny, in fact I will be a very hot and cross bunny.
Semper Fidelis, quod sum quod
4:35 pm
February 24, 2012
12:45 am
October 28, 2011
I’ve only read one of her other books (other than her “fictional biographies” lol) The Wise Woman, there was definitely no sacrificing children. Mostly making poppets and muttering. I can’t remember if there was any sacrificing of chickens.
Looks like she’s cashing in on the current craze for YA. I also had no idea she’s written a “feminist fairytale” either. I’ve managed to score a review copy, it comes out here at the end of the month, so I’ll tell you guys about it. And whether it’s safe for Boleyn to read to avoid any structural damage…
2:40 am
May 16, 2011
Okay, I’ll admit this one thing about Phillipa’s writing, her books are entertaining. Like if Anne Boleyn was fictional and never existed and Phillipa created the whole sisters sharing the King thing then yeah I’d love the book TOBG but Anne is real and I don’t like how PG sets herself up to know everything as a fact. Example: She say’s in the back of the OTBG book that Anne was defiantely guilty of one murder which is complete bull, How can she know that for sure? I wouldn’t object if she just questioned whether Anne was involved in a murder, I speculate everyday about different possiblites with Anne and Henry etc but I don’t say I know it for a fact, I have my theories that’s all. The only facts I know about Anne is: She grew up in Hever, She had a sister and brother, She had brown hair(whichever shade), she was involved in some way with Henry Percy, she refused to be the King’s mistress, she married Henry VIII, she gave birth to a daughter named Elizabeth, and she unjustly was put to death. That’s about it, the rest is merely theroies and speculation.
Phillipa shouldn’t act like she knows stuff like that and if she wanted to call herself a ‘historian’ then she should of been one but no she chose to write fiction novels.
• Grumble all you like, this is how it’s going to be.
7:24 pm
January 3, 2012
Olga said
I’ve only read one of her other books (other than her “fictional biographies” lol) The Wise Woman, there was definitely no sacrificing children. Mostly making poppets and muttering. I can’t remember if there was any sacrificing of chickens.
Looks like she’s cashing in on the current craze for YA. I also had no idea she’s written a “feminist fairytale” either. I’ve managed to score a review copy, it comes out here at the end of the month, so I’ll tell you guys about it. And whether it’s safe for Boleyn to read to avoid any structural damage…
LOL Olga.. SWMNBN, does sometimes make me want to cheerfully give her a good shaking,…………by the throat. I sometimes get the impression from her books that she simply hasn’t or couldn’t be bothered to do any research into the topic she has written about, and generally fills in the bits she has no idea about to make sure she gets her book in on time.. Dinosaur always says there is a right way a wrong way and Dinosaur’s way of doing things, and Dinosaur’s way of doing things is usually the best way to do things…
Semper Fidelis, quod sum quod
1:24 am
October 28, 2011
You know after I read Weir’s Six Wives of Henry VIII it actually dawned on me where PG had lifted most of her material from. I know she claims she used Warnicke’s book as a lot of the basis for TOBG, but after reading Weir’s (which she always puts in her bibliographies) I realised how extensively she’d used it, consciously or not. Weir of course has always said a lot of her earlier books have mistakes, everything she said about Mary Boleyn in Six Wives, for example, she’s debunked in her biography of her, twenty years later.
I suspect PG has done research, but uses it selectively according to what would translate to her style, which is of course, OTT.
1:36 pm
January 3, 2012
You are probably right Olga, but sometimes SWMNBN really gets up my bugle (A euphamisum for getting on your wick)
TOBG was one book of hers I almost chucked out of the window. as it seemed as if she made Anne a nasty piece of work. of course that’s her opinion and she’s entitled to it. but it just seems to me at least that for about the first quarter or to the half way point of any book she writes she seems to do ok then it seems as if she loses the way and then it gets a bit silly. The Red Queen and the White Queen I will confess I did actually quite enjoy, although I did find a little of what she about M.B and E.W a little hard to swallow., but again that’s her opinion and we should respect it, we all have our own interpitation of how we felt people from the Tudor era were. Just as some people believe A.B was guilty, my thoughts about that are a resounding NO the only thing that Anne was guilty of was letting her guard down and letting herself be sucked into Stinky bitter and spiteful world. But again if you look at it another way all of Stinky’s wives were victims. Stinky was a bitter twisted and vindictive piece of crap.
I personally feel that he had a mental illness too, possibily schizophrenia, but as I say that’s my opinion solely.
Semper Fidelis, quod sum quod
6:35 pm
October 28, 2011
I actually think she lacks a lot of technical skill and is inconsistent, I enjoy her books because she writes about women in history that everyone ignores. I know I’ve said it before but that is a very positive thing. She also recommends historians and pushes their books.
She obviously had the ambition to write some non-fiction but her publishers probably wept at the crappy sales of her Cousins War book (w/ David Baldwin and Michael Jones I think) and have banned her from doing more. A lot of historical fiction fans don’t want to read non-fiction. Non-fiction is not entertaining. Well, maybe for us, but you know what I mean.
So, as every single publisher is doing now, cash in on the YA paranormal mania! I think it will suit her. But I’m dead curious, most of the really popular authors in that genre are cross-over authors who were also writing adult paranormal romance (until Twilight went off and their publishers made them write some YA as well) and I know some historical romance authors wrote some paranormal romance that didn’t go over well. Again they would have been “encouraged” by their publisher to do it. Simon and Schuster move a heck of a lot of YA paranormal books, it is an absolutely market these days. But how’s she going to go alongside the teen romance or the straight historical fantasy? She doesn’t quite fit in there.
8:44 pm
January 9, 2010
I found her writing changed somewhere around the time of ‘The Other Queen’. I read ‘The White Queen’ but I found it really bad and haven’t bothered to read the subsequent books. But I have to say I’m kind of intrigued by her going into the YA market. Over the past couple of years I’ve got more into YA and I particularly like books in that genre that have a historical or paranormal edge. I hope her writing improves with this new venture because the book itself (I think it’s called ‘The Changeling’?) looks like something I may want to read!
1:29 pm
April 13, 2012
I just have to be an old curmudgeon and wonder why Young Adult novels are suddenly so very popular. Of course the success of Harry Potter has something to do with it. But I wonder if their readers are all “young adults”? I wonder if these books are read by people who have difficulty reading? (I DO NOT mean folks who are illiterate or semi-literate – I mean people who would say “OF COURSE I CAN READ!” but who would have trouble with a Dickens novel, say.) I feel sorry for these people but, with the advent of the internet, they can get by with just simple language. Anyway I can remember reading a couple of so-called YA novels when I was about 12 or 13 and I thought they were stupid. I stuck to regular adult books from then on.
I just hope Phillipa doesn’t go too haywire on paganism in her imaginary world! As some of the others in this forum have predicted she will.
LMC said
I just have to be an old curmudgeon and wonder why Young Adult novels are suddenly so very popular. Of course the success of Harry Potter has something to do with it. But I wonder if their readers are all “young adults”? I wonder if these books are read by people who have difficulty reading? (I DO NOT mean folks who are illiterate or semi-literate – I mean people who would say “OF COURSE I CAN READ!” but who would have trouble with a Dickens novel, say.) I feel sorry for these people but, with the advent of the internet, they can get by with just simple language. Anyway I can remember reading a couple of so-called YA novels when I was about 12 or 13 and I thought they were stupid. I stuck to regular adult books from then on.
I just hope Phillipa doesn’t go too haywire on paganism in her imaginary world! As some of the others in this forum have predicted she will.
It was the success of Twilight that sparked the new YA romance craze, which basically borrowed from the adult paranormal romance genre.
As for who reads Young Adult books, I do. I also read Enid Blyton. I find neither stupid, not do I have trouble with Dickens. Generally I judge books by the content and not by the genre, and don’t judge people by the books they read. I learned to love seeing the happiness books gave people of all different sorts when I had a bookshop, and that’s the true magic of reading.
Bella44 said
I found her writing changed somewhere around the time of ‘The Other Queen’. I read ‘The White Queen’ but I found it really bad and haven’t bothered to read the subsequent books. But I have to say I’m kind of intrigued by her going into the YA market. Over the past couple of years I’ve got more into YA and I particularly like books in that genre that have a historical or paranormal edge. I hope her writing improves with this new venture because the book itself (I think it’s called ‘The Changeling’?) looks like something I may want to read!
You know I liked Lady of the Rivers, and I didn’t like White Queen or Red Queen much. I agree, I think her writing had changed a lot in this series, I’ve found the books a bit “rushed” if you know what I mean.
12:48 pm
January 3, 2012
Olga said
LMC said
I just have to be an old curmudgeon and wonder why Young Adult novels are suddenly so very popular. Of course the success of Harry Potter has something to do with it. But I wonder if their readers are all “young adults”? I wonder if these books are read by people who have difficulty reading? (I DO NOT mean folks who are illiterate or semi-literate – I mean people who would say “OF COURSE I CAN READ!” but who would have trouble with a Dickens novel, say.) I feel sorry for these people but, with the advent of the internet, they can get by with just simple language. Anyway I can remember reading a couple of so-called YA novels when I was about 12 or 13 and I thought they were stupid. I stuck to regular adult books from then on.
I just hope Phillipa doesn’t go too haywire on paganism in her imaginary world! As some of the others in this forum have predicted she will.
Charles Dickens was a brilliant writer. I think that he must have known people like some of the charaters he wrote about. I love A Christmas Carol by him, and Martin Chuzzlewit. I live literely a 5 min drive from where he lived in Rochester, it’s a beautiful place a real mix of different archtechture.
I also got married there too and went for a drink afterwards at the King Henry pub, built when the Tudor’s were on the throne. Rochester Castle is beautiful too.
It was the success of Twilight that sparked the new YA romance craze, which basically borrowed from the adult paranormal romance genre.As for who reads Young Adult books, I do. I also read Enid Blyton. I find neither stupid, not do I have trouble with Dickens. Generally I judge books by the content and not by the genre, and don’t judge people by the books they read. I learned to love seeing the happiness books gave people of all different sorts when I had a bookshop, and that’s the true magic of reading.
Semper Fidelis, quod sum quod
Oh that is such a lovely way to describe her books Boleyn 🙂 I’m a mad collector, I have 2 or 3 hundred of her books.
Well my copy of Changeling arrived a few days ago, it’s not due out here until the 24th so I can’t pop a review up until then, and I have another book to finish first. I’ll probably start it in a couple of days, it’s not a huge book. I’m very curious to see if she manages a decent YA book though.