Reviews - The Daughter Of Time: An Inspector Alan Grant Mystery

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The Daughter Of Time: An Inspector Alan Grant Mystery

When I was at secondary school, a fellow pupil in my class was a member of the Richard III Appreciation Society. Sometimes she used to get quite tearful about King Richard's mistreatment and demise. This mystified me and was the beginning of a lifelong interest in the Plantagenets and the Wars of the Roses.

This period of history has been covered more recently by many works of Philippa Gregory and Conn Iggulden; although neither of their accounts ring true for me- Iggulden focuses on battles, Gregory on the trials of the women (and there certainly were plenty).

What I particularly like about this book, although not everyone will be interested in the characters or narrative style, is the careful and systematic examination of the evidence through a number of historical sources. In fact it's a great lesson in how fake news worked in its time.

It may be a bit outdated now but it's a great reminder to check your facts and references! I've always believed that the famous murdering monster was just a product of the Tudor propaganda machine. Nice to see a balanced and fair review of King Richard's life and character.

For a fictional review of his life; you can't beat Sharon Penman's The Sunne in Splendour, and for a more romantic ( and sad) version; We Speak No Treason by Norah Lofts is also good.

eserafina42's review against another edition

5.0

Despite its flaws, and maybe at least partly for sentimental reasons - this was one of my earliest forays into Ricardianism - this book still holds up really well for me. And yes, the idea that you can tell a person's character from his or her face, which is evidently a bee in the bonnet of the character, if not the author, is nonsense, but that very fact makes it completely irrelevant to me whether the portrait is from life or not, though it would be interesting to know whether Tey was aware that it wasn't. I also try to look at the whole thing as mainly a peg on which to hang the story. There's also the odd notion expressed by Grant when talking about Mary Queen of Scots - and it would be interesting to know if that was something that was actually believed by professionals in the 50s - that she couldn't have "loved greatly" because "nearly all out-size women are sexually cold." (?????)

Some of the "evidence" Grant uses is also outdated and there is no doubt that he (as well as his creator) is biased - though I have to admit that I find bias much more palatable when I share it! - but it's all good fun and makes some excellent points on why the "received version" of history (including this one) should not be accepted uncritically. Derek Jacobi's narration is a bonus, even though like most Brits he seems to think all Americans speak with a nasal midwestern twang.