Binding: Paperback
EAN: 9780712641975
ISBN: 0712641971
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Number Of Pages: 384
Publication Date: August 07, 2008
Publisher: Vintage
Studio: Vintage

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Rating: - if the information isnt there don't write it
Having read most of Alison Weir's historical works [which i would give 5 stars to] I have to say that this one is a real miss. Her writing style, usually so fluid, just did not flow for me in this book; she is severely hampered by the lack of accurate historical information available on her subject and i found the endless supposition made for a very trying read.

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Rating: - Absorbing as ever but difficult to get a real feel for the main subject
Absorbing and well researched as ever, but, due to the paucity of available information on its subject, this reads in many places more like a biography of John of Gaunt, as suggested by the book's subtitle. It does give a good feel for 14th century and life and mores, though. Annoyingly, the details/dates in the family trees at the back sometimes contradict the main text.

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Rating: - Fascinating story stitched together from very little cloth
Although Weir has written historical biographies of women who were intrinsically interesting -- Eleanor of Acquitaine and Isabella (the She Wolf) of France -- I have always found them a little dry. It's surprisingly, then, that her most lively and readable book so far should be about a woman about whom so little is known.

We can conjecture who Katherine de Roet's father was but the identity of her mother remains unknown; we cannot be sure how many children she bore, assuming that some ... Read More

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Rating: - interesting
Yes, I have read the Anya Seton book, over and over again, it was and is a great favourite of mine, so I thought I would get the definitive biography of the lady and her Duke. I was not daft enough to expect an enormous amount of facts, too much time had passed for many records to still be in existance, plus the fact that when the Savoy was burnt down in the Peasants revolt,I would imagine that many more records were lost. Katherine came over as a very interesting, beautiful and educated lady, very ... Read More

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Rating: - Misleading title
I was disappointed. Katherine Swynford is barely a ghost in this book. On the other hand we learn an enormous amount about the cast of hundreds who knew or were related or even contemporary with her. The book jumps around a great deal as well, filling in history about people I had no interest in and drifting away from what was supposed to be the main theme. That was confusing. As there were no facts to hang Katherine's character or life experience on, this was a dry and very lifeless read. It did follow ... Read More

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