![]() ![]() She’s wise-she’s the sum of life experiences about her legitimacy, scandalous affairs (Thomas Seymour, Robert Dudley), rebellion and Reformation and war with Spain. Physically, she’s suffering through hot flashes, aching bones and is a bit forgetful, but she keeps the “show” alive-fantastical dresses, amazing jewels, and pageantry. When Elizabeth narrates, the voice is regal. This Elizabeth really is married to England, and you feel this throughout the novel. The battle is inevitable, and Elizabeth is prepared. ![]() The book opens with England facing invasion from the Spanish Armada. George’s insight and understanding of what it is to grow old (according to Wikipedia she is 68 years old) is what sets this novel, which focuses on the last thirty years of Elizabeth’s life, apart from the several hundred others about her (at least 50 of which are in print as I write) because you have to be aware of your own mortality to understand it enough to write about it. ![]() Margaret George’s latest novel, Elizabeth I, is not a book that could have been conceived of, or written by, a young woman. ![]()
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