Two Queens in One Isle: The Deadly Relationship of Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots
£3.93
excellent, readable, impossible to put down - Ms. Plowden writes very well, at a lively pace. I could not put the book down. The title does not deceive - the deadly feud between two very different queens in the British Isles in the 16th century is exactly what the book is about. The story in itself is very interesting and this is one of the best recounts of it I have read. It is quite on a par with the Stephan Zweig famous book about Mary Stewart. The description of the two women is so detailed and thorough that it is almost fiction-like. And yet Ms. Plowden willingly conceded that some elements of this drama will forever remain a mystery. I found it fascinating to read a description of how an initially manageable situation gradually, through the actions mostly of one of the two protagonists, becomes an inescapable tragedy. This was the first book by Ms. Plowden I have read and it certainly put me in mind of reading her other books. I would recommend Two Queens in One Isle to anyone interested in a fairly serious and well-written history read on the 16th century European politics.