I started reading Phillipa Gregory’s The White Queen today. I never really wanted to but I was told that I should start reading more historical fiction, that it could help me with my writing. Normally I stay away from historical fiction; when I read history I read non-fiction, I don’t like wondering which is fact and which fiction… of course some I have found are either engrossing enough or well written enough/obviously well researched to read and enjoy (like Alison Weir’s forays into fiction and Anya Seton’s Katherine).
However, so far The White Queen is palatable. It’s not great, I’m not even sure yet that it is good. I’m about 100 pages in and the writing isn't anything special, very easy to read, and for some reason the dialogue feels off… a little too anachronistic.
However, there are summarizing parts that do include insights into the real history. Gregory does seem to be fairly good at including these needed elements of truth, and keeping the unknowns, the parts that can only be inferred by the historian/writer, to what is obviously her own imagination.
I read somewhere that this wasn’t her best work though so I may read The Other Boleyn Girl after this, since that is her best known. I would like to know if she wrote any non-fiction. I think it said on her bio that she is a trained historian. She does seem to know the events and players of the time fairly well.
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