The Queen's Fool (Hardcover)

Mary and Elizabeth, the two young princesses, have a common goal: to be Queen of England. To achieve this, they need both to win the love of the people and learn how to negotiate dangerous political pitfalls. Gregory recreates this era with tremendous colour, and she makes the court an enticing but danger-fraught place. Into this setting comes the eponymous fool, the youthful Hannah, who (despite her air of guileless religiousness) is not naive. She soon finds herself having to deal with the beguiling but treacherous Robert Dudley. Dispatched to report on Princess Mary, Hannah discovers in her a passionate religious conviction (to return England to the rule of Rome and its pope) that will have fatal consequences.

From Tolstoy's War and Peace onwards, historical novelists have set fictitious characters among real-life personages with mixed success; the author's creations can often pale beside the historical figures. That is emphatically not the case here, and Gregory ensures that all her characters have a full and teeming life. Expect a major movie: something as colourful and exuberant as The Queen's Fool is a natural for screen adaptation. --Barry Forshaw

Review
Praise for THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL: 'It is a credit to Gregory that she is able to sustain interest in an epic-length tale when the ending is one of the most well-known moments in English history. The very believable dialogue and detail take you all the way into the claustrophobic privy chambers of the royal palaces...Gregory has launched herself into a popular period and produced something with that most underrated of virtues: readability.' THE TIMES 'This is an intelligent variation on a familiar tale [with] witty use of metaphor' TLS 'This compulsively readable novel is a wonderful account of the tudor court...This is the finest historical novel of this year' DAILY MAIL

After winning the Parker Romantic Novel of the Year in 2002 for the brilliant The Other Boleyn Girl, Philippa Gregory returns to the Tudor court in this equally absorbing novel. It is 1553, Henry VIII is dead and his young son Edward is now king. 14-year-old Hannah Green, a determined Jewish girl with the gift of foresight, has come to England with her bookseller father to escape the Inquisition in Spain. After a chance meeting with the dashing Lord Robert Dudley at her father's bookshop, Hannah finds a new life as a court fool - and a spy. Reporting to Dudley all that happens around the sickly king, Hannah is also sent to spy on Princess Mary, with whom she strikes up a loyal and lasting friendship. When Edward dies, Hannah finds herself directly involved in the plots and schemes that abound at court as Mary comes to the throne, and struggles with her loyalty to the queen and subsequently to her sister Elizabeth. She wrestles with her sexual awakening, her love for Dudley and her betrothal to her cousin, Daniel, but ultimately cannot fight the male-dominant world she lives in as with her gift of foresight she is constantly manipulated by the powerful men around her for their own ends. Will Hannah be able to survive in a time of treachery, bloodshed and burnings, where her own religious beliefs could be questioned at any time? Unlike the many authors who concentrate on the times of Henry VIII or Elizabeth I, Philippa Gregory has turned her attention to the tumultuous period between the two reigns and takes us from the death of Edward VI up to Elizabeth's ascension with an assured historical touch. We see behind the pomp of the Tudor Court and into the minds of Mary and Elizabeth, rivals for the throne like their mothers before them. This is a powerful and moving tale of an important period in history, seen through the eyes of a young woman who is both observer and player in these tempestuous times. (Kirkus UK)

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