A review by katscribefever
Katherine Swynford: The Story of John of Gaunt and His Scandalous Duchess by Alison Weir

3.0

This is a biography that leans heavily on the side of romanticism. It includes a massive account of the unpleasant details about Katherine and John, each of whom made plenty of mistakes. I wouldn't call this an uplifting read, but it was absolutely a very well-researched one. Weir shares a lifetime of information about the title figure in my favorite novel, and does so in a way that strips away many of the pretenses we often allow to color our perception of a long ago time. I see Katherine and John's story a little differently than Weir, with fewer starry eyes than sorrowful ones, but even so I think her research into the matter is thorough and a pretty compilation of information about a woman who lived in a time when women were very much