Tanzanite's Castle Full of Books

The Young Elizabeth by Alison Plowden. Non-fiction. UK reissue January 1, 2011.

Elizabeth I is perhaps England's most famous monarch. Born in 1533, the product of the doomed marriage of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. Her mother was condemned as a witch and after her death, Elizabeth was disinherited and finally imprisoned by her jealous half-sister, Mary. Her childhood was one of fear and danger, she was aware from the outset that the eyes of the world were upon her and that to survive she would have to rely on her own judgement and strength of character. Many tried to use her for their own ends, however she rose out of the shadows and on the death of her sister, she became Gloriana - England's most iconic queen. Alison Plowden's portrayal of this young woman at turns frail and feisty, is a triumph of narrative history.







Henry VIII: A Life by David Loades. Non-fiction. UK release February 15, 2011.
A major new biography of the most infamous king of England. 'Means to be God, and do as pleases himself' Martin Luther observed. It was a shrewd comment, not merely on the divorce in which the King was then embroiled, but upon his whole career. Henry VIII was self righteous, and convinced that he enjoyed a special relationship with the Almighty, which gave him a unique claim upon the obedience of his subjects. He subdued the church, sidelined the old nobility, and reorganised the government of his realm, all in the name of that Good Lordship which was his God-given responsibility.

As a youth, he was a magnificent specimen of manhood, and in age a gargantuan wreck, but even in his prime he was never the 'ladies man' which legend, and his own imagination, created. Sexual insecurity undermined him, and gave his will that irascible edge which proved fatal to Anne Boleyn and Thomas Cromwell alike. Several times during his reign he took out his frustrations in warfare, but succeeded only in spending vast sums of money. Henry VIII dominated England during his lifetime and for many years thereafter, as a warrior, as a renaissance Prince, and as Supreme Head of the Church, but his personality is as controversial today as it was in his own lifetime. He is a figure impossible to ignore. Professor David Loades has spent most of his life investigating the remains, literary, archival and archaeological, of Henry VIII, and this monumental new biography book is the result. His portrait of Henry is distinctive, he was neither a genius nor a tyrant, but a man' like any other', except for the extraordinary circumstances in which he found himself.



In the Steps of the Black Prince: The Road to Poitiers (1355 – 1356) by Peter Hoskins. Non-fiction. UK release February 17, 2011.
In 1355 the Black Prince took an army to Bordeaux and embarked on two chevauchées (mounted military expeditions, generally characterised by the devastation of the surrounding towns and countryside), which culminated in his decisive victory over King Jean II of France at Poitiers the following year. Using the recorded itineraries as his starting point, the author of this book walked more than 1,300 miles across France, retracing the routes of the armies in search of a greater understanding of the Black Prince's expedition. He followed the 1355 chevauchée from Bordeaux to the Mediterranean and back, and that for 1356 from Aquitaine to the Loire, to the battlefield at Poitiers, and back again to Bordeaux. Drawing on his findings on the ground, a wide range of documentary sources, and the work of local historians, many of whom the author met on his travels, the book provides a unique perspective on the Black Prince's chevauchées of 1355 and 1356 and the battle of Poitiers, one of the greatest English triumphs of the Hundred Years War, demonstrating in particular the impact of the landscape on the campaigns. Peter Hoskins is a former Royal Air Force pilot, now living in France. He combines his interest in exploration of his adopted country with his research into the Hundred Years War.





The Wild Rose by Jennifer Donnelly (cover may not be final and the summary is a little vague at this point) UK release February 28, 2011; US release August 2, 2011.

1914. World War I is looming on the horizon, women are fighting for the right to vote, and global explorers are pushing the limits of endurance at the Poles and in the deserts. Into this volatile time, Jennifer Donnelly places her vivid and memorable characters:

-Willa Alden, a passionate mountain climber who lost her limb while climbing Kilimanjaro with Seamus Finnegan, and who will never forgive him for saving her life;

-Seamus Finnegan, a polar explorer who tries to forget Willa as he marries a beautiful young woman back home in England;

-Max von Brandy, a handsome sophisticate who courts high society women, but who has a secret agenda as a German spy.

Readers who were left clamoring for more after The Winter Rose will be happy to see many characters from the previous novels continue their adventures in The Wild Rose. With myriad twists and turns, thrilling cliffhangers, and fabulous period detail and atmosphere, The Wild Rose provides a highly satisfying conclusion to an unforgettable trilogy.



The Whites of Their Eyes by Paul Lockhart. Non-fiction. US release June 7, 2011.
On June 17, 1775, New England colonists faced off against the British in what has become known as the Battle of Bunker Hill, the first major clash of the American Revolution. Though it is one of the most famous battles in history, it is so clouded in patriotic myth that everything about it – the men who fought it, the commanders who led them, even the ebb and flow of the fighting – has been consistently misunderstood.

The Whites of Their Eyes dispels dearly held myths, revealing how this battle was not a heroic struggle between a band of resourceful American amateurs and a disciplined professional army of veterans led by haughty, overconfident British generals. Nor was it a clash between Old World and New, and their two very different ways of fighting war.

Historian Paul Lockhart argues that in reality, Bunker Hill was a clumsy engagement pitting one inexperienced army against another. He tells the rest of the story, too: how a mob of armed civilians became America’s first army and how George Washington put aside his comfortable patrician life to take command.



Illuminations by Michelle Diener. US release August 2, 2011.
Henry VIII’s most lethal courtier and his newly appointed artist become the only thing keeping him on the throne – and if they survive, neither will ever be the same.John Parker is one of Henry VIII most useful courtiers — utterly merciless and completely loyal. But one small favour for his King will pull Parker into a deadly plot against the throne, one that will test his courage, his resolve, and most especially, his heart. This hunter is about to become the hunted.A commission from Henry VIII should have been the crowning achievement of Susanna Horenbout’s career, but before the beautiful and talented artist even sets foot in England, she finds herself in possession of a secret that could change its history. With Parker as her only protection against killers who will stop at nothing to silence her, Susanna has to trust the dangerous, enigmatic courtier. She’s used to fighting in a man’s world, but she never expected to be fighting for her heart or her life


To Die For by Sandra Byrd. US release August 9, 2011.
To Die For, is the story of Meg Wyatt, pledged forever as the best friend to Anne Boleyn since their childhoods on neighboring manors in Kent. When Anne’s star begins to ascend, of course she takes her best friend Meg along for the ride. Life in the court of Henry VIII is thrilling at first, but as Anne’s favor rises and falls, so does Meg’s. And though she’s pledged her loyalty to Anne no matter what the test, Meg just might lose her greatest love—and her own life—because of it.

Meg's childhood flirtation with a boy on a neighboring estate turns to true love early on. When he is called to follow the Lord and be a priest she turns her back on both the man and his God. Slowly, though, both woo her back through the heady times of the English reformation. In the midst of it, Meg finds her place in history, her own calling to the Lord that she must follow, too, with consequences of her own. Each character in the book is tested to figure out what love really means, and what, in this life, is worth dying for.

Though much of Meg’s story is fictionalized, it is drawn from known facts. The Wyatt family and the Boleyn family were neighbors and friends, and perhaps even distant cousins. Meg’s brother, Thomas Wyatt, wooed Anne Boleyn and ultimately came very close to the axe blade for it. Two Wyatt sisters attended Anne at her death, and at her death, she gave one of them her jeweled prayer book—Meg.