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Macbeth the King
Book by Tranter, Nigel
393 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1978
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367 people want to read
About the author
Nigel Tranter
179 books143 followersNigel Tranter OBE was a Scottish historian and writer. He was the author of a wide range of books on Scottish castles, particularly on themes of architecture and history. He also specialised in deeply researched historical novels that cover centuries of Scottish history.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
October 30, 2020
A very different take on Macbeth
Nigel Tranter was an author who wrote a wide range of books on castles, particularly on architecture and history. He also specialised in well researched historical novels that extend over centuries of Scottish history. He was and remains a very popular and well regarded historical novelist.
MACBETH THE KING is written from the point of view that Macbeth and his wife have been much maligned by Shakespeare and subsequent popular perception. The Macbeth family one meets in these pages will be a great surprise to those who know them only from Shakespeare. This Macbeth is neither venal, a traitor, a murderer, nor a tyrant. Instead he is a good king who prefers peace and prosperity for the realm rather than war. But wars come despite his efforts and wishes and the tale is still a tragedy. Shakespeare was right about that.
There appear to be some editing or formatting issues with this Kindle edition. However some of what I thought were errors may simply be Tranter's style. For instance this sentence can be read as missing some words but that is not necessarily so: “We here discuss the security of the realm."
But then there are these three examples:
"You will be banished my realm henceforth. During my pleasure."
"Whilst his mother, my aunt, Jives. He is harmless."
"One day the Earl Godwin, an old man getting, was going to die,"
There are enough sentences such as these to be distracting but not enough to ruin my reading experience. This is an exciting, well researched, fictionalized story of Macbeth and wife. The author's note at the beginning and the historical postscript at the end are brief but well done explanations of how the novel was written and of some of the known history.
Nigel Tranter was an author who wrote a wide range of books on castles, particularly on architecture and history. He also specialised in well researched historical novels that extend over centuries of Scottish history. He was and remains a very popular and well regarded historical novelist.
MACBETH THE KING is written from the point of view that Macbeth and his wife have been much maligned by Shakespeare and subsequent popular perception. The Macbeth family one meets in these pages will be a great surprise to those who know them only from Shakespeare. This Macbeth is neither venal, a traitor, a murderer, nor a tyrant. Instead he is a good king who prefers peace and prosperity for the realm rather than war. But wars come despite his efforts and wishes and the tale is still a tragedy. Shakespeare was right about that.
There appear to be some editing or formatting issues with this Kindle edition. However some of what I thought were errors may simply be Tranter's style. For instance this sentence can be read as missing some words but that is not necessarily so: “We here discuss the security of the realm."
But then there are these three examples:
"You will be banished my realm henceforth. During my pleasure."
"Whilst his mother, my aunt, Jives. He is harmless."
"One day the Earl Godwin, an old man getting, was going to die,"
There are enough sentences such as these to be distracting but not enough to ruin my reading experience. This is an exciting, well researched, fictionalized story of Macbeth and wife. The author's note at the beginning and the historical postscript at the end are brief but well done explanations of how the novel was written and of some of the known history.
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April 4, 2019I read a lot of these, at least it feels like a lot, when I was a teenager for the simple reason that my local library - far distant from Scotland - had loads of them. This one is a readable, enjoyable, kind of historical novel , 180 degrees away from Shakespeare's Macbeth, well at least as far as character is concerned.
This king is serious and earnest with a serious earnest wife, both of whom try to do the best for their Kingdom but none the less are eventually brought down, in much the same way as in the well known play.
Those who have read more than one of Nigel Tranter's historical novels will not be surprised that the Celtic tradition (ie Irish and Scots) of the Church and the construction skills of the mysterious Picts have a role to play in the story.
Reading Dorothy Dunnett's King Hereafter which is broadly the same story but with different starting presumptions and a very different story telling style, it is interesting to note the similarities and perhaps see both books as consciously or unconsciously, maybe not exactly anti-colonialist but perhaps parts of a literature of resistance. Whereby if for an English playwright, a certain Scottish king is a villain heading an evil regime while intervention by an English army restores - well obviously not Democracy, but certainly peace and justice then the Scottish historical novelist can respond by saying 'no'. Both books deny an Anglocentric world view, Scotland is not merely an English periphery, some Haggis kingdom whose rulers may be imposed or deposed as an English leader feels fit, no it has it's own place in the world that rubs shoulders with Norway, Ireland, even Normandy (depending on the writer) it also has its own distinct home grown cultural traditions in religion or building and governance. Scotland is not in these books an inevitable bolt on to an English state, but implicitly always its own place - just occasionally wrenched out of its natural place by the dasterdly English into an unnatural relationship.
The nation is above all the product of literature.
This king is serious and earnest with a serious earnest wife, both of whom try to do the best for their Kingdom but none the less are eventually brought down, in much the same way as in the well known play.
Those who have read more than one of Nigel Tranter's historical novels will not be surprised that the Celtic tradition (ie Irish and Scots) of the Church and the construction skills of the mysterious Picts have a role to play in the story.
Reading Dorothy Dunnett's King Hereafter which is broadly the same story but with different starting presumptions and a very different story telling style, it is interesting to note the similarities and perhaps see both books as consciously or unconsciously, maybe not exactly anti-colonialist but perhaps parts of a literature of resistance. Whereby if for an English playwright, a certain Scottish king is a villain heading an evil regime while intervention by an English army restores - well obviously not Democracy, but certainly peace and justice then the Scottish historical novelist can respond by saying 'no'. Both books deny an Anglocentric world view, Scotland is not merely an English periphery, some Haggis kingdom whose rulers may be imposed or deposed as an English leader feels fit, no it has it's own place in the world that rubs shoulders with Norway, Ireland, even Normandy (depending on the writer) it also has its own distinct home grown cultural traditions in religion or building and governance. Scotland is not in these books an inevitable bolt on to an English state, but implicitly always its own place - just occasionally wrenched out of its natural place by the dasterdly English into an unnatural relationship.
The nation is above all the product of literature.
August 10, 2016
It is clear that the Shakespeare play- Macbeth- bears little or no resemblance to the true facts and events of the time or the real character of MacBeth mac Finlay King of Scots.
Nigel Tranter has put much meticulous research into this work, which most likely traces events close to how they really were. Nowhere do we read , in this book, about the vicious and bloodthirsty tyrant portrayed by Shakespeare.
MacBeth is here revealed as a strong and courageous ruler, who together with his beautiful young queen Gruoch (much maligned by Shakespeare as 'Lady MacBeth), are commited to the unity and freedom of Scotland from England, the Danes, the Roman Church and self-serving and arrogant nobles.
Together MacBeth and Gruoch rule justly and fairly, and MacBeth is helped by his half-brother the redoubtable Nordic Prince, Thorkill Forsterer, Earl of Orkney.
Duncan is revealed as not the benevolent and just king in the Shakespeare play, but a worthless and scheming coward, who MacBeth kills in battle.
The saga takes us all over Scotland, and to Norway, Denmark and Rome.
MacBeth's battle for the sovereignty and welfare of Scotland is brought to an end by Duncans' son Malcolm and the jealous Duncan MacDuff.
Interestingly MacDuff, in this volume, is not even a great warrior, and in the final chapter has MacBeth dispatched by a Norman knight, rather than fight him himself.
Obviously historical novels depend of imagination and deduction, as well as research, but a study of the subject would certainly verify the portrayal and events in htis novel as more authentic.
Enthusiasts of millitary histor and wargames will enjoy the detailed battle descriptions, and lovers of historical fiction will find this rich and rewarding.
Nigel Tranter has put much meticulous research into this work, which most likely traces events close to how they really were. Nowhere do we read , in this book, about the vicious and bloodthirsty tyrant portrayed by Shakespeare.
MacBeth is here revealed as a strong and courageous ruler, who together with his beautiful young queen Gruoch (much maligned by Shakespeare as 'Lady MacBeth), are commited to the unity and freedom of Scotland from England, the Danes, the Roman Church and self-serving and arrogant nobles.
Together MacBeth and Gruoch rule justly and fairly, and MacBeth is helped by his half-brother the redoubtable Nordic Prince, Thorkill Forsterer, Earl of Orkney.
Duncan is revealed as not the benevolent and just king in the Shakespeare play, but a worthless and scheming coward, who MacBeth kills in battle.
The saga takes us all over Scotland, and to Norway, Denmark and Rome.
MacBeth's battle for the sovereignty and welfare of Scotland is brought to an end by Duncans' son Malcolm and the jealous Duncan MacDuff.
Interestingly MacDuff, in this volume, is not even a great warrior, and in the final chapter has MacBeth dispatched by a Norman knight, rather than fight him himself.
Obviously historical novels depend of imagination and deduction, as well as research, but a study of the subject would certainly verify the portrayal and events in htis novel as more authentic.
Enthusiasts of millitary histor and wargames will enjoy the detailed battle descriptions, and lovers of historical fiction will find this rich and rewarding.
February 9, 2016
Completely different to Shakespeare's rendition, and a very amenable read all round. Macbeth is a sympathetic character here, and tragic by the end, which follows one of the elements of the prophecy in Shakespeare's rendition with a more realistic explanation that sounded plausible to me.
This was definitely much better than Dunnett's awfully sluggish novel, too. Macbeth is a good king, and I liked his relationship with the two most important people in his life: his wife Gruoch (who's nothing like the infamous Lady Macbeth), and his half-brother Thorfinn Sigurdsson, a loud and boisterous but loyal Viking earl. The history of the time is presented in a way that doesn't overwhelm the reader, and it never gets slow because you get just the amount of information you need.
Overall, it's been a nice three and a half stars read. I only wish I were more interested in the time period and place as to have enjoyed this even more.
This was definitely much better than Dunnett's awfully sluggish novel, too. Macbeth is a good king, and I liked his relationship with the two most important people in his life: his wife Gruoch (who's nothing like the infamous Lady Macbeth), and his half-brother Thorfinn Sigurdsson, a loud and boisterous but loyal Viking earl. The history of the time is presented in a way that doesn't overwhelm the reader, and it never gets slow because you get just the amount of information you need.
Overall, it's been a nice three and a half stars read. I only wish I were more interested in the time period and place as to have enjoyed this even more.
December 30, 2012
MACBETH THE KING
In The Letters of J.R.R Tolkien, he refers to Shakespeare’s portrayal of elves as silly deformed creatures as unforgivable and thus he sought to portray elves closer to the original Nordic and perhaps Celtic and Saxon traditions. I would agree with Tolkien in his assessment of Shakespeare’s untruths but would also add that what he did to Macbeth was equally unforgivable. I know that Nigel Tranter’s Macbeth the King was a historical fiction, but even without that obvious bias, the real Macbeth is so unlike Shakespeare’s Macbeth that it is doubtful the two characters were one and the same.
Macbeth the King is a historical story that follows the actual story of Macbeth as closely as possible and some of the evidence is sketchy. What we do know is that he ruled Scotland for seventeen years that were relatively prosperous. He defeated King Duncan in battle although whether he killed him in person or not is disputed. In a time when the strongest, most vigorous chieftain became a lord or a king, the fact that he ruled for seventeen years and saw fit to make a pilgrimage to Rome tells us more than Shakespeare’s bastardisation. An absent king would have been more vulnerable and could have returned to find his kingdom in ruins. He was a Pictish king who succeeded in uniting Pictland (Moray) with Alba (Scotland) to create the Scotland we know today. His defeat at the hands of Duncan’s son is chronicled as is his death a year later. We know he was married to Gruoch, who was also of royal descent and that he was her second husband. It may have been a marriage of political convenience but that is nothing new for that era.
Tranter’s story fills in the blanks, colouring the landscape and inviting us into a world that for us remains inaccessible unless we have a time machine. He has put a romantic twist on the relationship between Gruoch and Macbeth, which could also be an untruth but believable enough and serves to show us Macbeth the man. We see him enacting just and humane laws relating to the inheritance of land and titles by women, which back then favoured men, establishing merchant guilds and encouraging closer ties between church and state. Some of that we can only guess at to be honest but it does serve to bring us closer to an actual meeting with the historical Macbeth. The Celtic church was different to the Roman Catholic church in that their priests could marry and seem to have been a little more worldly and practical.
I found the story one of his more refreshing tales and opened my eyes a little wider to the silliness of Shakespeare’s plays. The Macbeth of Tranter is portrayed as a king, husband and father, but also as a man with faults and failings like all the rest of us. As usual his descriptions are evocative and true to life, which back then was short, sharp and brutal. He manages to portray a divided Scotland that was only just beginning to emerge from the Dark Ages to become a united kingdom. Britain is on the cusp of change just before the Norman invasion. The Danes still hold the northern parts of England against the Anglo Saxons to the south. Scotland was very much on the outer fringes but Tranter has his Macbeth trying to unite a fractured land and finding his worst enemies are not outside Scotland but far closer at hand. His betrayal and eventual death are not spoilers, we already know the end before we start the book.
It may not be the exact truth but Macbeth the King serves as a vital counter punch against the folly of Shakespeare and puts Macbeth in his rightful place as a king who for seventeen fruitful years ruled Scotland and was ultimately betrayed by his own people.
In The Letters of J.R.R Tolkien, he refers to Shakespeare’s portrayal of elves as silly deformed creatures as unforgivable and thus he sought to portray elves closer to the original Nordic and perhaps Celtic and Saxon traditions. I would agree with Tolkien in his assessment of Shakespeare’s untruths but would also add that what he did to Macbeth was equally unforgivable. I know that Nigel Tranter’s Macbeth the King was a historical fiction, but even without that obvious bias, the real Macbeth is so unlike Shakespeare’s Macbeth that it is doubtful the two characters were one and the same.
Macbeth the King is a historical story that follows the actual story of Macbeth as closely as possible and some of the evidence is sketchy. What we do know is that he ruled Scotland for seventeen years that were relatively prosperous. He defeated King Duncan in battle although whether he killed him in person or not is disputed. In a time when the strongest, most vigorous chieftain became a lord or a king, the fact that he ruled for seventeen years and saw fit to make a pilgrimage to Rome tells us more than Shakespeare’s bastardisation. An absent king would have been more vulnerable and could have returned to find his kingdom in ruins. He was a Pictish king who succeeded in uniting Pictland (Moray) with Alba (Scotland) to create the Scotland we know today. His defeat at the hands of Duncan’s son is chronicled as is his death a year later. We know he was married to Gruoch, who was also of royal descent and that he was her second husband. It may have been a marriage of political convenience but that is nothing new for that era.
Tranter’s story fills in the blanks, colouring the landscape and inviting us into a world that for us remains inaccessible unless we have a time machine. He has put a romantic twist on the relationship between Gruoch and Macbeth, which could also be an untruth but believable enough and serves to show us Macbeth the man. We see him enacting just and humane laws relating to the inheritance of land and titles by women, which back then favoured men, establishing merchant guilds and encouraging closer ties between church and state. Some of that we can only guess at to be honest but it does serve to bring us closer to an actual meeting with the historical Macbeth. The Celtic church was different to the Roman Catholic church in that their priests could marry and seem to have been a little more worldly and practical.
I found the story one of his more refreshing tales and opened my eyes a little wider to the silliness of Shakespeare’s plays. The Macbeth of Tranter is portrayed as a king, husband and father, but also as a man with faults and failings like all the rest of us. As usual his descriptions are evocative and true to life, which back then was short, sharp and brutal. He manages to portray a divided Scotland that was only just beginning to emerge from the Dark Ages to become a united kingdom. Britain is on the cusp of change just before the Norman invasion. The Danes still hold the northern parts of England against the Anglo Saxons to the south. Scotland was very much on the outer fringes but Tranter has his Macbeth trying to unite a fractured land and finding his worst enemies are not outside Scotland but far closer at hand. His betrayal and eventual death are not spoilers, we already know the end before we start the book.
It may not be the exact truth but Macbeth the King serves as a vital counter punch against the folly of Shakespeare and puts Macbeth in his rightful place as a king who for seventeen fruitful years ruled Scotland and was ultimately betrayed by his own people.
September 21, 2016
The way Tranter accounts the story of Macbeth the king is very enlightening to the acts and thoughts of that great man. I appreciate the way lady Grouch is depicted here. Their relationship leads to an understanding of mind and soul that proves very successful and profitable for their kingdom. Liked it very much and was very delighted making and impossible comparison with Dunnet's King Hereafter, of which I was reminded trough the book.
April 21, 2020
I love the dept in Nigel Tranters books. Macbeth as a real person was fascinating, as was his wife and the Scottish history. Macbeth was not a bad guy, ruled for 17 years, saved Lady Macbeth and her son, who ruled for a short period. Read about the real Macbeth, if not this book then just his real life.
August 18, 2019
In his introduction, Nigel Tranter refers to Shakespeare's play Macbeth as "brilliant drama but a travesty of history and of MacBeth’s and his wife’s characters and careers. Few historical royal couples, surely, have been so grievously traduced." Tranter, in his 1978 novel MacBeth The King, tries to set the record straight.
The book is painstaking in his historical accuracy, but struggles to provide interesting drama, as Shakespeare knew how to do. Tranter might have been better just to write a straight biography, as MacBeth The King at times drags due to several passages that are full of the bureaucratic trappings of kingship. At times the book bogs down in geography. During MacBeth's last attempt to escape Malcolm and MacDuff, it felt like someone telling you the exact route they took to get to your house.
The real MacBeth was King Malcolm's grandson. He has a Viking half-brother, Thorfinn Raven Feeder, who is a great character. Gruoch, the widow of a slain rival, comes to him as a hostage, but he marries her and they have many children. After Malcolm dies, his cousin Duncan pulls a fast one and is crowned king while everyone else is at Malcolm's funeral on Iona. MacBeth swears fealty to Duncan, and will not rise against him, but when push comes to shove he kills him in battle and becomes king himself.
He reigns about fifteen years, and there are rebellions that are put down. He makes a pilgrimage to Rome, in a chapter that is fascinating historically, as Tranter gives us the lowdown on just how one visited the Pope back in the eleventh century (it was Leo III at the time). Finally, Malcolm Canmore, along with MacDuff and Siward, break through and defeat MacBeth.
One of the problems with the book is that Tranter's MacBeth is pretty much perfect. He's true blue, a great husband (treating Gruoch as an equal), fair to a fault, and smart. I don't think Tranter gives him a bad habit or vice. Surely MacBeth had his bad days when he said things he regretted or kicked the dog. We do get a warts and all depiction of his step-son, Lulach, who briefly succeeded him.
The prose ranges from the sedentary to the thrilling. Tranter describes many battles, and while at times one loses one's place (it's hard to describe topography and geography in text) some of it is thrilling: "Even as the ghastly grinding connection was made, Thorfinn leapt from one ship to the other, sword flailing, jumping over the shields and the sprawling mangled bodies of the Galloway oarsmen, and followed by a stream of axe- and sword-wielding Vikings, yelling hate. It was a chaotic, wild affray, for there was little foot-room on rowing-benches and gangway, and what there was was slippery with blood or cluttered with bodies."
It's fun to connect the dots and see where Shakespeare got his stuff (mostly from a chronicle by Holinshed). "She dreamed that I would not fall by the hand of man until a forest itself rose up and walked! Birnam Wood, in Atholl. Until Birnam Wood marched to Dunsinane in Gowrie." There are no witches, though, or any mention of how MacDuff was "untimely ripped from his mother."
The prose is written in a kind of formal English that borders on parody, using words like "therefrom." Modern English wasn't spoken then, of course. I believe these characters would have spoken Scots, or Gaelic, so perhaps Tranter is trying to give us an idea of what that would have sounded like translated into English.
MacBeth The King is interesting so long as it gives us history, but as a novel it is stodgy. For those who are fascinated by Scottish history, it is essential, though.
The book is painstaking in his historical accuracy, but struggles to provide interesting drama, as Shakespeare knew how to do. Tranter might have been better just to write a straight biography, as MacBeth The King at times drags due to several passages that are full of the bureaucratic trappings of kingship. At times the book bogs down in geography. During MacBeth's last attempt to escape Malcolm and MacDuff, it felt like someone telling you the exact route they took to get to your house.
The real MacBeth was King Malcolm's grandson. He has a Viking half-brother, Thorfinn Raven Feeder, who is a great character. Gruoch, the widow of a slain rival, comes to him as a hostage, but he marries her and they have many children. After Malcolm dies, his cousin Duncan pulls a fast one and is crowned king while everyone else is at Malcolm's funeral on Iona. MacBeth swears fealty to Duncan, and will not rise against him, but when push comes to shove he kills him in battle and becomes king himself.
He reigns about fifteen years, and there are rebellions that are put down. He makes a pilgrimage to Rome, in a chapter that is fascinating historically, as Tranter gives us the lowdown on just how one visited the Pope back in the eleventh century (it was Leo III at the time). Finally, Malcolm Canmore, along with MacDuff and Siward, break through and defeat MacBeth.
One of the problems with the book is that Tranter's MacBeth is pretty much perfect. He's true blue, a great husband (treating Gruoch as an equal), fair to a fault, and smart. I don't think Tranter gives him a bad habit or vice. Surely MacBeth had his bad days when he said things he regretted or kicked the dog. We do get a warts and all depiction of his step-son, Lulach, who briefly succeeded him.
The prose ranges from the sedentary to the thrilling. Tranter describes many battles, and while at times one loses one's place (it's hard to describe topography and geography in text) some of it is thrilling: "Even as the ghastly grinding connection was made, Thorfinn leapt from one ship to the other, sword flailing, jumping over the shields and the sprawling mangled bodies of the Galloway oarsmen, and followed by a stream of axe- and sword-wielding Vikings, yelling hate. It was a chaotic, wild affray, for there was little foot-room on rowing-benches and gangway, and what there was was slippery with blood or cluttered with bodies."
It's fun to connect the dots and see where Shakespeare got his stuff (mostly from a chronicle by Holinshed). "She dreamed that I would not fall by the hand of man until a forest itself rose up and walked! Birnam Wood, in Atholl. Until Birnam Wood marched to Dunsinane in Gowrie." There are no witches, though, or any mention of how MacDuff was "untimely ripped from his mother."
The prose is written in a kind of formal English that borders on parody, using words like "therefrom." Modern English wasn't spoken then, of course. I believe these characters would have spoken Scots, or Gaelic, so perhaps Tranter is trying to give us an idea of what that would have sounded like translated into English.
MacBeth The King is interesting so long as it gives us history, but as a novel it is stodgy. For those who are fascinated by Scottish history, it is essential, though.
June 20, 2013
So it seems your friend and mine Ol' Billy Shakespeare tells a great story, but not a very accurate one! Well, I guess people won't always pay to see the truth. Macbeth was deeply maligned in the Scottish Tragedy, but I'm sure he would expect such treatment from an Englishman.
It's been a while since I've read a historical novel of this type. Loved the time period description and the characters. A little much on the extensive explanation of travels across Scotland, though I probably would have enjoyed those if the map where more detailed and I could follow along the route.
It's been a while since I've read a historical novel of this type. Loved the time period description and the characters. A little much on the extensive explanation of travels across Scotland, though I probably would have enjoyed those if the map where more detailed and I could follow along the route.
May 7, 2016
My second time reading this novel. MacBeth, the deep -thinking, patriotic grandson of the king, placed up against his scheming cousin, forced into deadly combat and thereafter to rule with an uneasy peace alongside his viking half-brother. And the fateful moment when Birnam Wood comes to Dunisnane is beautifully handled. Nigel Tranter was always the master of the novelisation of Scottish history. He never disappoints.
December 22, 2018
Picked this up a lifetime ago and have been dipping in and out of it over the years.
There are many positives to this book: it is well-written, honest, and utterly smashes the propaganda of Shakespeare's "Macbeth".
That being said, I never really clicked with the writing style: it felt earnest and understated in the way that history textbooks can be. Definitely one for the history and historical fiction buffs. Just not me.
There are many positives to this book: it is well-written, honest, and utterly smashes the propaganda of Shakespeare's "Macbeth".
That being said, I never really clicked with the writing style: it felt earnest and understated in the way that history textbooks can be. Definitely one for the history and historical fiction buffs. Just not me.
June 14, 2012
Excellent book! Tranter brought to life truer picture of the only Northern High King in Scotland's history. Definitely not Shakespeare's version
December 20, 2015
Review coming soon.
June 7, 2022
Very well written and researched, this story of Macbeth is less dramatic but closer to actual facts than the Shakespeare's version. I liked the attention to details and explanation that Tranter gives of the different customs and laws of the land, the characters' family trees and political motivations, the geography of places, the clothing and food, etc.
The story is plausible, but, as exciting as they are, I would have liked a summary version of the battles (i.e. not blow-by-blow account) which were so lengthy it made me want to skip ahead.
3.5 stars rounded down.
The story is plausible, but, as exciting as they are, I would have liked a summary version of the battles (i.e. not blow-by-blow account) which were so lengthy it made me want to skip ahead.
3.5 stars rounded down.
March 29, 2025
Very interesting. I wanted to learn more about the historical Macbeth after recently seeing David Tennant's take on Macbeth (which was excellent). The real man was not at all like the Shakespearean character. He ruled for almost 20 years and was an excellent ruler. Very fair and peace loving. Just like with Richard III, Shakespeare did a hatchet job on the poor man. Highly recommend to anyone wanting to learn more about Scotland in the 11th century. Well-researched.
May 5, 2019
The book's final chapters do not quite deliver on the promise of an epic conflict set up so artfully in the first half of the book.
March 2, 2018
Clearly written historic fiction. It would be a good companion read to Shakespeare's play to show another point of view of the historic events.
Reread February 2018 as book 5 in the Chronological Order of Nigel Tranter books
Reread February 2018 as book 5 in the Chronological Order of Nigel Tranter books
March 9, 2017
I find Nigel Tranter's work to be refreshing; a glimpse into past versions of humanity that helped shape our present. That was the strength of this book.
October 25, 2016
Learning about a different Macbeth was refreshing. Wonderful story teller
July 25, 2020
I'm a Tranter fan and this one didn't disappoint. It is the only one reliably available on audible and it was a good listen.
March 19, 2012
Definitely a must read. This story is much more interesting than the more famous play!
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews