Sunday 9 March 2008

The White Rose of Langley

If you would like to read another novel about Constance of York after digesting Within the Fetterlock, you could try The White Rose of Langley by Emily S Holt which is available through
Project Gutenburg.

I do have to warn you though that Ms Holt is a Victorian writer and her views about the Roman Catholic Church in particular are distinctly non-PC. (If you are wondering, all the 'good' characters are, or become, Lollards.) I should hate anyone to be offended.

It is, nonetheless, an interesting read in parts and you may enjoy comparing and contrasting her interpretation of Constance against mine.

Oddly enough, I can't think of any other novel that focuses on the House of York in its early years, though there are a number written around the Lancaster bunch.

3 comments:

Jules Frusher said...

Hi Brian - Welcome to Blogland! Just found your blog via Susan Higginbotham. It looks really interesting and I shall enjoy reading through all the posts you've put on. As a humerous aside - I have taken part in the re-enactment of Bosworth Field (many, many year ago) in full plate armour and it was an awesome (and painful!) experience!

Susan Higginbotham said...

Thanks for posting the link to this! I have the novels she wrote about Piers Gaveston and Hugh le Despenser the younger; they're eccentric, to put it mildly (she even tries to make Hugh the younger a proto-Protestant). But she actually did take pains with her research, although it yields some very strange results.

Brian Wainwright said...

Thank you folks. As I think I have said, your two blogs were among the three that got me started!

Yep, Emily S Holt definitely did her research, and is one of the few historical novelists to add her notes at the back. But her interpretation work is indeed quite bizarre.