1 comments about The Pilgrimage of Grace: The Rebellion That Shook Henry VIII's Throne.

1. A brilliant account of a pivotal moment in the cultural history of England, taken mainly from local accounts and records. Goes into an extraordinary level of detail without bogging down, remaining readable and interesting all the way through.

No comments about The Royals.

No comments about On the Trail of Bonnie Prince Charlie (On the Trail of).

No comments about Los Picaros Borbones.

5 comments about Diana: The Last Year.

1. I have been reading books on Princess Diana since 1981 and this has to be one of the best. Diana, The last year has to be one of the better written books on Diana. It is worth the money and is the type of book that you will go back to time and time again



2. One gets the full story from Soto. You don't get every salvo from the war of the Wales.But does one need that? Important facts, such as Diana's understanding that the 10,000 bouquet from the public, was as important as her first, are there.

   I felt he understood Diana and her impact on people better than most. It' has a tenderness that's vital when considering her life.

   The book I recommend when asked about Diana books.




3. This is an excellent book that towers on the other biographies because this book doesn't dwell on tawdry scandal, but simply concentrate on the most important aspect of Diana: her charity work. No other book has covered her good deeds so well. The only problem with the book, and it is small problem is the somwhat heavy-handed use of poems.



4. A good accounting of Diana's last year as she was spinning out of control. When you read about all of her comings and goings you wonder if she had any idea of how it would turn out? Did she know it would soon end?

   One of my favorite books about her. I wonder about the Royal Family and how they manage to keep going. Is a puzzlement.




5. While Andrew Morton's "Diana Her True Story" and "Diana Her New Life" chronicled the Princess's unhappy life in the Royal Family prior to her 1996 divorce from Dumbo Ears (sorry, Prince Charles), Donald Spoto's account describes her life post divorce until her tragic and untimely death. In the process he highlights all the aspects of her character, both good and bad, that caused the world to fall in love with her forever. This is a great tribute to you, dear Diana. May you rest eternally in peace.

1 comments about White Rajah: A Biography of Sir James Brooke.

1. The book tells the life story of Sir James Brooke, the British-born rajah of the kingdom of Sarawak in Northern Borneo (today part of Malaysia). Brooke's life has been told many times and this retelling does not shed much new light to it, except for the unabashed recognition of the fact that, by all indications, Brooke was homosexual (probably not latent), and especially attracted to handsome young men. Otherwise, it's an easy-to-read, well written retelling of a story which, at a closer look, actually proves a lot less interesting and adventureous than you'd think if you only know the bare skeleton of it.

No comments about Paradise and Pestilence: Aspects of Provence.

2 comments about Henry VIII and the English Nobility.

1. Whatever his personal and political faults, Henry VIII was astute in the art of government, weaving a network around the throne, and around the dynasty he was setting out to create, of old aristocratic families and newly created noblemen. By examining the way in which the king selected "new men," created new titles, promoted existing peers, and saw to it that the extinction of a title was always to his own advantage, Miller shows how Henry's attitudes, policies, and use of patronage reflected his dynastic insecurities.



2. While I did not love this book, it is well-researched and makes a solid contribution to a relatively under-researched area of Tudor history. Given the extent of the shadowy way in which Henry VII came to the thrown influenced Henry VII and Henry VIII's actions, you would think there would be more books written on Henry VIII's relationship with his nobles.
   This book is relatively bland but it gives real insight in to the pressures of faction politics in HVIII's court, discussing how some nobles refused to participate in the trial of Anne Boleyn, how Henry VIII's succesful "judicial murder" of Buckingham cowed the nobles and encouraged Henry in his other outrageously tyrannical prosecution of nobles, and how some nobles would be complicit in these actions since they occasionally benefited if the victim's land was divided amongst the jurors.

No comments about Conor: A Biography of Conor Cruise O'Brien.

3 comments about Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother: Woman of the Century.

1. The photographs in this book are wonderful. A complete history of the life of the Queen Mother told through the pictures that appeared in The Daily Telegraph, this is a great buy.



2. Many of the photographs in this book are not new. They have been seen before in other publications. Athough there are some good new selections of photos used. In all cases however, the photographic reproductions in this book are excellent. A very nice, personal gift copy that I would be pleased to give to a friend.



3. This is a lavish guide to the practically indistructable mother of the British Sovereign. She was Elizabeth Bowes-Lyons to her fellow debs in 1919, she was Queen as George VI's wife, but to all of us she is just the Queen Mum, bless her; the plucky lady with the common touch, who shrugged off gunshot wounds after a quarrel about gambling debts in an East End boozer, the massive-armed matriarchal powerhouse who has no time for nonces or liberty-takers. A marvelous book.