Customer Reviews
disappointing, yet still a worthwhile read - By: L. Bretherton, 01 Sep 2008 
I was so looking forward to this book, but I found it sadly lacking in... well, passion, I suppose. Mary Queen of Scots is a fascinating historical character, but she comes across as a bit of a wet blanketin this.
While the three voices thing worked wellin "The Boleyn Inheritance", it is a bit repetitive here. We get the message early on that Bess is only interestedin hanging onto her wealth. We really don't need to be told time after time how worried she is about losing the church silver again.
George & his honour become fairly wearing after the first hundred pages. The only interesting bits for me were the invented dialogues between the characters. But yeah, nice dust jacket & I always like a ribbon thing to keep my place!
Yet another good read. - By: N. Cawsey, 31 Aug 2008 
I really liked the presentation & the feel of this book - it's large & heavy but has a classy dust jacket & a plain fawn hard cover plus the nice extra of an integral book mark - I know this doesn't contribute to the contents but it is good to handle.
I found it enthralling & read itin a day & a half, couldn't put it down!
I like the way it is written,in individual passages by the three major characters - Mary Queen of Scots & Lord & Lady Shrewsbury - showing the complicated relationship between guest/prisoner & hosts/jailers. I think it succeeds very wellin this & also brings to life the court of Queen Elizabeth 1 - not a 'Golden Age' - but a time of cruelty, avarice & intolerance.
It is a complex book, well researched & written, as Philippa Gregory's historical novels always are. As always, a review is a personal thing, but I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys a 'good read'.
It's not a bad book, but nor is it terribly compelling. - By: Julia Flyte, 30 Aug 2008 "The Other Queen" is about Mary, Queen of Scots' imprisonmentin England, focusing on the early years of her imprisonment. The story alternates between three perspectives: George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury & his wife, Bess of Hardwick who were charged with responsibility for the Queen; the third narrator being Mary, Queen of Scots. Bess is an ambitious social climber who initially thinks that hosting Queen Mary will be a way to advance the family fortunes, but who is dismayed to find that it drains their financial resources instead. George on the other hand becomes infatuated with the Queen, which causes irreparable frictionin his own marriage.
I've enjoyed other books by Philippa Gregory, but The Other Queen lacks momentum. It's a long book & not a lot happens (and when things do happen, they're invariably taking place somewhere else). I enjoyed itin a mild way, but it felt so repetitive: countless variations on Bess complaining about money, George idealizing Mary & Mary telling us how charming she is. Bess was actually quite a remarkable woman for her time, but she comes across as being so unpleasant that she failed to elicit my sympathy. You also get the feeling that most of the exciting parts of Mary's life have already taken place, so there is lots of time spent fillingin her back story.
As always, Philippa Gregory has done her research. I didn't necessarily agree with her interpretation of Mary's personality, but I couldn't fault it on historical grounds. It did feel however as if she couldn't quite make up her mind what the nature of Mary & Bothwell's relationship had been & why Mary had chosen to marry him, which I think is something that she needed to establish more clearly. Towards the end of the book events also get twisted & compressed, presumably to bring about a neater conclusion. Mary's execution (still 15 years away) is describedin a dream sequence: couldn't Philippa Gregory come up with a better way to include it?
I kept waiting for the book to get going, but it never really did. At one stage Bess writes: "I can hardly believe that this nightmare goes on, goes on & on, & we never achieve victory & we never achieve peace". In many ways that reflects how I felt about the book. It's not a bad book, but nor is it terribly compelling.
