Rather long and sometimes hard to really get into, but overall a very good and thorough history of Elizabeth's reign.

Excellently written and very well narrated by Davina Porter.

A fascinating book about a fascinating woman. Highly enjoyable and thought-provoking.
challenging informative reflective slow-paced

http://nhw.livejournal.com/1125160.html[return][return]Weir concentrates on Elizabeth's reign from 1558 to 1603. She makes the point that her private life was very much lived in public, and I would add that it was clearly very political. Weir concentrates essentially on the internal politics of Elizabeth's court, which is great as a means of studying her statecraft, but does mean we miss out on some of the other important policy areas - notably, from my point of view, Ireland, which figures only as the scene of the death of the elder Earl of Essex and the catastrophic military failure of his son. Weir is anyway much more interested in the personal dramas of Elizabeth's relationships with the younger Essex, Leicester, and Mary Queen of Scots, which are all in fairness rather good stories. She is particularly good on using appropriate contemporary quotes (though misattributes Nicholas White's letter to the Earl of Shrewsbury).[return]

To quote the name of one of my favorite podcast Elizabeth was a Historical Badass Broad

Alison does a great job or making a history book enjoyable, readable, and flow. I knew a decent amount about Elizabeth's life, but only the what happened, reading the more emotional side of things, how it affected her really added to what I know about her.

I loved the information in the book, but this writer's style was difficult to follow.

This was a really well-done biography. Though very full of information, it never got dry or dull.
informative slow-paced

Loved this. Elizabeth Tudor is a fascinating figure of history, and I thought this was a very comprehensive view of her life.