Mary & Elizabeth [Paperback]

Before I get into the review proper, for the benefit of of fellow Amazon customers I just want to highlight the fact that this novel is also published under the title The Tudor Throne under the author's real name Brandy Purdy.

I rather felt that "Mary & Elizabeth" had its good points and bad points, and they actually balanced each other out, resulting in a fairly mediocre, middle-of-the-road book. I thought the premise was interesting, the focus on their relationship in the early years up to Elizabeth's accession, and the idea that despite their differing ideological, political and personal backgrounds their dynamic simply as sisters had a significant impact on their other roles to each other. Writing alternate chapters from one sister's point of view and then the other's was an interesting way of exploring these questions, but writing it in first person? The risk in using first person is that historical figures are wonderfully and horribly complex to nail down, and it's a feat rarely pulled off. Mary and Elizabeth in this novel are interesting and entertaining characters, but they're not true to life, in my opinion. I felt that the language and writing skill Purdy displayed was competent, and there were moments in particular that I really enjoyed, such as her description of the masque of flowers and the wares of "the Cakes and Ale Man".

However, for me there were a few negative points as well. Here and there certain sentences, usually describing a character's attire, went on and on and they're rather unwieldy. Also, there were certain words and phrases that were anachronistic. Now, there's a line to be trodden here; no one expects an author to write a story entirely in the language of the times, indeed if they did it could be difficult for readers to understand and potentially limit the author in what they can convey. However, I think it's reasonable to expect that certain watch words and phrases be avoided, for example you wouldn't expect a novel set in ancient Rome to mention the word "electricity", so one has to be careful about certain words and also things like idioms and peculiar sayings.

My big bugbear in this novel however was the sensationalism and the lack of historical accuracy. Elizabeth is titled incorrectly, Anne Boleyn's motto is wrong, and the novel dredges up the old long-disproven rumours of a sixth finger and various poisonings. I know some will raise the familiar calling cry "it's only fiction" in response to this point, but if you ask me, history is interesting enough to stand on its own, it doesn't need to be spiced up, and á la Philippa Gregory's "The Other Boleyn Girl" there comes a point when historical accuracy is so removed from the facts, when the characters are unrecognisable from the historical people, that the author might as well have just written a story about entirely fictitious characters. Also, historical figures were real people and there's a duty to treat them with objectivity, it seems only courteous to mention in an author's note if an author has messed about with the history. To me personally I prefer accuracy and it just seems unnecessary to drag historical figures through the mud by repeating all the lurid unsubstantiated rumours ever spoken about them. I love history, so when I read historical fiction I'm hoping for the story to give me an insight into the real people, and to treat them as human beings with shades of grey. I'm not looking for a Tudor gossip magazine.

Purdy's previous novel attracted a certain amount of criticism for the lurid sex scenes. I didn't feel like there were too many sex scenes in this book, but what sex scenes there were I thought were rather on the lurid side - not intolerable, but definitely lurid.

It shows how desperate I was for anything new to read on the Tudors that I bought this as I still have nightmares over the Tudor Wife.The previous reviewers are spot on with their criticisms about the obsession with sex...and honey...and sex...however I did quite enjoy this. Some of the descriptions are good and I found Mary's appraisal of Elizabeth at the end rather moving. I do accept the Seymour episode as it's clear that something occurred which Elizabeth was resourceful enough to survive, though the portrayal of her with Philip of Spain is really hard to believe...I don't think Elizabeth would have been so blatant, she was intent on preserving her life.

If you can suspend some disbelief, it's good enough as a holiday read, it passed a few hours entertainingly.

History is written by the victors as the old saying goes but I'd like to add an extension to this: and historical fiction writers to suit their own purposes. What Elizabeth Purdy creates here is vastly inaccurate, has major problems with its timelines and of course sadly is pure sensationalism with a good smattering of sex included for no real reason but to titillate the reader.

Add to this problems with the perspective of the stories main two protagonists (as it's told from Elizabeth and Mary's first person point of view) and it's sadly something that whilst OK, is not something startling or a title that stands out from the masses of titles out there. Finally add to the mix major problems with what's gone before including lack of research and the story really falls far short of what I was hoping for.