Review
From the book jacket: Katherine has been fated her whole life to marry
Prince Arthur of England. When they meet and are married, the match becomes
as passionate as it is politically expedient. The young lovers revel in each
other's company and plan the England they will make together. But
tragically, aged only fifteen, Arthur falls ill and extracts from his
sixteen-year-old bride a deathbed promise to marry his brother, Henry;
become Queen; and fulfill their dreams and her destiny.
Widowed and alone in the avaricious world of the Tudor court, Katherine
has to sidestep her father-in-law's desire for her and convince him, and an
incredulous Europe, that her marriage to Arthur was never consummated and that
there is no obstacle to marriage with Henry. For seven years, she endures
the treachery of spies, the...
Beyond the Book
Philippa Gregory was born in Kenya in 1954, and moved to
England with her family at the age of two. She was a rebel at school,
attempting to organize her fellow pupils into a Union and barely scraping
through her A Levels (exams taken before leaving school at 18). Needing
to earn a living she trained as a journalist before realizing that she ought to
be at University. She went to Sussex University to read English but had to
take a compulsory Introduction to History course in her first year - the studies
were a revelation which would transform her life; she swapped her degree to
History and discovered a passion for the past.
She lives in the North of England with her husband and two children; in addition to interests that include...
