It is very weird how much of our history has passed me by over the years. I find I am almost totally ignorant of what happened before Henry the Eighth took centre stage.
So much of his life story has been portrayed on the TV as well as in book form that somehow I've never considered what went on before he arrived and laid claim to notoriety by chopping off the head of an unwanted wife!
I knew about the War of the Roses...and imagined this was Lancashire versus Yorkshire but this seems not to be the case at all .
Learning History from a work of fiction may not be a good idea on the whole but some books do open up the imagination and inspire the need for more knowledge as you go along!
I have loved the novels of Hilary Mantel about Tudor Britain but have recently been reading about " The cousins war" by Phillipa Gregory.
The story of "The White Princess" is a good one but has served to make me aware of how little I know of the history of the monarchy before the infamous Henry took centre stage.
Now I am referring to old books, rooting around the Internet via Google and learning just how blood stained our history has been.
It's fascinating stuff and I'm glad to have landed in it via imaginative writing.
It has brought out the latent joy of discovery.
Long may it continue ......there is a lot to discover yet!
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2 comments:
My knowledge of history is very poor, but the older I get I find myself being more and more interested in history.
All our history seems to be written from the viewpoint of men and men who have power.
And as a Scot I get annoyed that history is often from an English perspective - seldom much on Scottish history.
Try Sharon Kay Penman Jean , she is excellent and my love of the Middle Ages is due to her writing
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