Historical Fictionistas discussion

I'm very intrigued by Mary Stuart and was looking for good recommendation's on books about her.

Elizabeth Loupas's The Flower Reader is wonderful, depicting a young maid-of-honor for Mary when she returns from France, but before all the Bothwell-Darnley-Rizzio messes. It's not a particularly flattering view of Mary, but I think a realistic one.

thank you Kate I'll take a look into it :)

POPULAR books on Mary Stuart....

http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/m...

thank you ladies.....the link didn't work :/

Ayla wrote: "thank you ladies.....the link didn't work :/"

really it worked for me....just go to listopia and type in search MARY STUART.

Kate wrote: "Elizabeth Loupas's The Flower Reader is wonderful, depicting a young maid-of-honor for Mary when she returns from France, but before all the Bothwell-Darnley-Rizzio messes. It's not a particularly..."

I'm curious if there's a book about her that does give a flattering portrayal; I've never read one, it would be an interesting change. Not having researched her much, I wonder why this is. She does seem to have made some bad choices, but... ...

Dorothy Dunnett's Queens' Play and Checkmate are at least neutral regarding Mary Stuart. There is also The Other Queen, although I have not read it.

C.P. wrote: "Dorothy Dunnett's Queens' Play and Checkmate are at least neutral regarding Mary Stuart. There is also The Other Queen, although I have not read it."

The Other Queen gave a sympathetic, but realistic, portrayal of Mary Stuart, although the really interesting part of the book was about Bess Hardwick, the wife of the Earl assigned as Mary's jailer. I had never heard of Bess before, but I remember her best from the book.

I think Gillian Bagwell has a new book coming out on Bess. I think I saw it in the Giveaways section here.

In Marie Stuart by Stefan Zweig I think she is portrayed quite nicely, with a lot of compassion.
I read it ages ago, but I still remember this read as a truly good one :)