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Book Summary and Reviews of Tidelands (The Fairmile Series) by Philippa Gregory

Tidelands (The Fairmile Series) by Philippa Gregory

Tidelands (The Fairmile Series)

by Philippa Gregory

  • Readers' Rating (1):
  • Published:
  • Aug 2019, 464 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

This New York Times bestseller from "one of the great storytellers of our time" (San Francisco Book Review) turns from the glamour of the royal courts to tell the story of an ordinary woman, Alinor, living in a dangerous time for a woman to be different.

A country at war
A king beheaded
A woman with a dangerous secret

On Midsummer's Eve, Alinor waits in the church graveyard, hoping to encounter the ghost of her missing husband and thus confirm his death. Until she can, she is neither maiden nor wife nor widow, living in a perilous limbo. Instead she meets James, a young man on the run. She shows him the secret ways across the treacherous marshy landscape of the Tidelands, not knowing she is leading a spy and an enemy into her life.

England is in the grip of a bloody civil war that reaches into the most remote parts of the kingdom. Alinor's suspicious neighbors are watching each other for any sign that someone might be disloyal to the new parliament, and Alinor's ambition and determination mark her as a woman who doesn't follow the rules. They have always whispered about the sinister power of Alinor's beauty, but the secrets they don't know about her and James are far more damning. This is the time of witch-mania, and if the villagers discover the truth, they could take matters into their own hands.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"A gripping novel…With her usual meticulous attention to detail, the author easily elicits the chaos and dangers of the mid-17th century…This book will leave readers eagerly awaiting the next installment in the series. Fans of Gregory's works and of historicals in general will delight in this page-turning tale." ―Library Journal (starred review)

"A welcome topical pivot from gifted Gregory, the first entry in her promising Fairmile Series sets the stage for a multigenerational, multivolume saga about the rise of a family from rags to riches." ―Booklist

"Dynamic...History buffs and Gregory's fans alike will be anticipating the next installment." ―Publishers Weekly

"This is Gregory par excellence. A promising start to a family saga about ordinary people." ―Kirkus Reviews

This information about Tidelands (The Fairmile Series) was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

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Author Information

Philippa Gregory

Philippa Gregory is the author of many New York Times bestselling novels, including The Other Boleyn Girl, and is a recognized authority on women's history. Many of her works have been adapted for the screen including The Other Boleyn Girl. She graduated from the University of Sussex and received a PhD from the University of Edinburgh, where she is a Regent. She holds honorary degrees from Teesside University and the University of Sussex. She is a fellow of the Universities of Sussex and Cardiff and was awarded the 2016 Harrogate Festival Award for Contribution to Historical Fiction. She is an honorary research fellow at Birkbeck, University of London. She was awarded a CBE title for services to literature and charity in 2022. She welcomes visitors to her website PhilippaGregory.com.

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