Philipa Gregory & "The White Queen"

       

A picture taken with Philipa Gregory with her new book coming out today ("The White Princess").

I had the great experience of attending a lecture by bestselling Author, Philipa Gregory.  As most of you know, Philipa Gregory has written many historic fiction novels, a number of which take place around the Tudor era.  She is widely known for her novel "The Other Boleyn Girl".  

Within the last five years or so, P. Gregory has written novels that are referenced as "The Cousins' War", aka "The War of the Roses".  I, recently, completed "The White Queen", which was the first book of her trilogy of "The Cousins' War".  The White Queen is about Elizabeth Woodville.  Woodville's children included the Princes in the Tower & Elizabeth of York.  By the latter, Elizabeth Woodville was the grandmother of Henry VIII, great-grandmother of King Edward VI, Queen Mary I of England & Queen Elizabeth I.  She was the great-great-grandmother of Mary, Queen of Scots.  Through Elizabeth Woodville's daughter, Elizabeth of York, she is the ancestor of every English Monarch since Henry VIII, every Scottish Monarch since James V of Scotland and every British Monarch from James VI & I.  

I am not going to summarize the book.  If you love the Tudor era, this book is for you.  Yes, there are inaccuracies.  Yes, it is a fiction novel.  However, the book sheds some light to the reader what is was like during the "The War of the Roses" (AKA, The Cousins' War).  When we think of the Tudors, most of us think right away of Henry VIII & his wives & Elizabeth I, etc.  However, there is a lot of history of how the Tudors became one of the greatest dynasties in the world.  It all starts from somewhere.  By reading "The White Queen", it helped me understand some history behind the Tudors.  I also learned a lot about the House of York & Lancaster & much about "The Cousins' War". 

I highly recommend reading "The White Queen".  Additionally, at the lecture, we saw an advanced screening of "The White Queen" that will be airing on Starz.  The first episode was very good and followed the book to a tea.  Not only do I recommend reading "The White Queen" but also suggest watching the series, which starts 8/10/13 in the USA.  It has already started in the UK & can most likely be found on YouTube.  

Enjoy!