I had read a review of this book by Glenconner, a lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret.  Indeed, it was she who introduced Margaret to Mustiqe.  Born the daughter of an earl, married to an eccentric and disagreeable Scottish aristocrat, her story had the makings of a great memoir.  Glenconner is a remnant from a bygone age who came out at a debutante ball, coped with a difficult husband and tragedies in her children's lives, and, the selling point, a long servant and friend of Princess Margaret.  This is no salacious tell-all story, nor is it a hagiographical tribute.  We are reminded that Margaret visited AIDS patients in hospital regularly and privately, long before the publicised (and useful for that reason) visits of Diana.  Margaret was clearly a difficult woman but not without her charms and she had an attractive character.  This a was great read.

As a footnote, I went to an audience with Anne Glenconner in conversation with the ever brilliant Gyles Brandreth.  Unexpectedly, she came across as both slightly bewildered and slightly mischievous.  It was most entertaining.

I used to love the books of Jean Plaidy, and have read a great many of them.  My aunt had them and lent thm to me, and then I added to them when visiting jumble sales etc.  They are historical novels - and fiction - but better researched than many, and, for me as a teenager voracious for history, they provided an accessible pathway to periods and figures I didn't know.  

I first read this one in 1984 and it was Review #78 - I am now breaking my rules about writing reviews twice - and I came across it as a free e book recently, and decided to read it again.  It follows the life of Eleanore, Duchess of Aquitaine, Queen of France, and Queen of England from her childhood through to the death of Becket.  Her first marriage and especially her participation in the Second Crusade were little known to me, and the exotic locations make the story especially interesting.  Some liberty is taken with the facts - an affair with Saladin!!??  The myth of Becket's maternal roots is also repeated, but overall it is an exciting and intelligent read.  Curiously, I have not the read the following volume, which deals with the latter part of Henry II's reign, and the bitterness of the familial wars brought to life in the Lion in Winter - I must correct this sometime, and perhaps read the whole of the Plantagenet Saga.  Reading this book again took me back many years, and I was back in my old room sitting by the bed devouring the book one rainy week during a long summer holiday.

After a bit of a break, it is my intention to blog more, and, in particular, to publish reviews of most of the books I am reading - I write a review of every book I read, numbering them, and it is time some of them were published to encourage you to read more.

There are many books about the Romanovs, and most of them concentrate on the end of the dynasty, with the disasters that befell Nicholas and Alexandra.  Some books focus a bit on Peter the Great, or Catherine the Great, but few will say much about Michael, the first Romanov Tsar, or Elizabeth, or Nicholas I.  What I appreciated about this volume was the weighting given to all periods of Romanov rule from 1613-1918.  I learnt quite a bit about some of the other Tsars and Tsaritsas, especially in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.  Simon Sebag Montefiore is a fine author and I have enjoyed other works of his (Young Stalin #1219 and Jerusalem the Biography #1453).

The thing that really struck me was the role of women in the Romanovs.  Until Paul I, who hated his mother and passed the Pauline Laws to prevent women succeeding to the throne, there were several Tsaritsas regnant - not just Catherine the Great, but another Catherine, Anna, Elizabeth.  Furthermore, the wives and mothers of the Tsars played important roles and held regencies too.  Like most rulers of Russia over the centuries, they were all-powerful and unscrupulous.  Perhaps a large nation like Russia needs such rulers, as this continues to be the case.