Elizabeth I: The most readable and well-reviewed and researched that I have found is:
The First Elizabeth by Carolly Erickson
also by Erickson: The Great Harry and Bloody Mary about her father and sister.
There is also an excellent dual bio about Elizabeth and her cousin Mary Queen of Scots-Elizabeth and Mary by Jane Dunn.
Alison Weir has also written a good one...I just prefer Erickson's style.

Can't recall the exact title, but it is a 2006 biography of Marie Antoinette, and I liked it very much. It took a different slant on her. Ask your reference librarian; I'm sure he/she can find it, particularly since it was reviewed in the NY Times Book Review.

Its the one by Antonia Fraser, whose bios about historic figures have always been highly readable and interesting. This one however was so filled with minutia that I found myself skimming it in parts. But it is worth reading.

Sharon Penman has a novel about Stephen and Maude (Matilda) called When Christ and His Saints Slept. Like all of her historical works it is interesting and very readable.

Margaret Irwin wrote (1940s) a superb (fiction)trilogy about Elizabeth I--Young Bess; Elizabeth, Captive Princess; Elizabeth and the Prince of Spain.

Matilda appears briefly, but long enough to have made a great impression on me, in Thomas Costain's The Conquering Family, the first of his 4 volume history of the Plantagenets. His stuff reads like fiction, but it isn't. Except that I really think it is to the extent that he treats us to the rumors he chose to believe. For example the suggestion that Matilda and Stephen had the hots for each other.

I suspect that Penman and others took many of their stories from the Costain series. Having read the fiction first, I was just as enthralled reading the non fiction accounts. Wonderful writing, fascinating times.

I read the Fraser Marie Antionette last year (feels odd to say that since this is the first day of 2007) and I liked all those details. I also saw the movie version of that novel, and it missed so much of the political machinations that it felt like the icing on the cake. Read the book and then see the movie because you'll appreciate it more. And if you have ever been to Versaille, you'll wish the producers had shown more of it.
I also read a number of Elizabeth I novels last year - can't remember the exact titles because I don't keep lists - but I do recommend you watch the Helen Mirren mini-series because that was enthralling. Such a great actress and the costumes/settings were superb.

The most interesting bio I've read, I don't read many, is The Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell. Not necessarily because the writer of the first-ever English dictionary led the most interesting life, but because Boswell was so fascinated by him. The way it is written is almost more important than who it's written about.

>And if you have ever been to Versaille, you'll wish the producers had shown more of it.

I am sure I am in the minority, but I was less then impressed with Versaille. It could have been the wall to wall people who left me with a 'eh' impression. Or by the time we saw it, I'd seen so many magnificient European houses and palaces that it just didn't do anything for me. Now, outdoors, the gardens were exquisite - esp since we went on a day when they turned on the fountains and played classical music!

BTW jan, have you read Helen Davis novel Versailles? Fascinating short novel about Marie, and the palace, told in a very interesting narration.

A good bit of the Neal Stephenson Baroque Cycle takes place in Versailles, much of it in the working quarters of the palace where sanitation was less than what one would expect.

The Alhambra and Generalife, which I saw on the same trip, were more to my liking than Versailles. The gardens were happier places. And also, I find Baroque to be the epitome of bad taste. Just me, I'm sure.

Oh I loved Versaille - I thought it was the Vegas of that period. And like Vegas, it was totally overdone, over-the-top and outrageous! The human ability to do Tacky so incredibly well earns my respect. Both places are fascinating - perhaps not high on the "truth & beauty" scale but really interesting for what they say about the society and the people that built them.

A little more current, but very interesting so far, is Charles Higham's updated bio of Wallis-The Duchess of Windsor. Puts a very different slant on them...some of it I am having trouble believing-but it is lauded for its level of research, and he did have access to recently released documents in both the US and UK, as well as interviews with many of their contemporaries.

I've just finished "Devil Water" by Anya Seton, which I consider well-researched historical fiction. The story takes place in both England and the Virginia colony in the 1700's. Basically, it deals with those who supported the Jacobites and the king over the water, Bonnie Prince Charlie, and their fates. The author used actual historical personnages (e.g. William Byrd, and the scenes set in Colonial Virginia are spot on.

This is an old one and probably not well known, if so forgive me! I, personally, loved it. It is Howard Fast's historical novel Agrippa's Daughter. It is about Berenice Bas Agrippa, daughter of Herod Agrippa, who was married to her Uncle and was rumored to have an affair with her brother. I found it fascinating and have only ever been disappointed that I couldn't find out anything about a character in the book named Shimeon Ben Gamaliel. He is said to have been a physician, the grandsom of the great Hebrew teacher Gamaliel and was given the title of Nashi. I have always wanted to know more and have never found anything other than the book's information. Can someone out there in Paradise-land help?
Thanks!
Kim

Have you googled the name? Its not familiar to me, but there were many Jewish sages of that time living in Rome. If you find out, lemme know.

I haven't really been into Roman history, probably because thats all we got for ancient history in school. But watching I, Claudius, and then reading the book by Robert Grave, gave me a new appreciation for it. I'll check that one out too.

I can't resist a Google search...there were many hits, but this one was interesting.

Here is a link that might be useful: Shimeon Ben Gamaliel

I am reading Ungrateful Daughters by Maureen Waller, substitled 'The Stuart Princesses Who Stole Their Father's Crown'.
A period of English history of which I am rather hazy, except for the basic 'outline'; I don't think it is ever covered in depth at schools or universities. Rather a thick tome but well-written and brings the declining House of Stuart into focus.
We are given a picture of popular but lazy and lecherous Charles II. The equally randy but block-headed religious zealot James II and their various wives, many more mistresses, numerous children (very many of them died) and the plethora of Royal Bastards.
James' extreme Catholicism (even the Pope didn't support him) and how his Protestant daughters Mary and Ann bring the Stuart period to and end makes up the last part of the book.

Any title by JEAN PLAIDY might be of interest.
She wrote a wealth of historical novels under this name.

How about "Pope Joan" by Donna Woolfolk Cross? It certainly held my interest when I read it.

Well, there's certainly a debate whether or not there really was a Pope Joan. I wouldn't be surprised if it were true, but I think the verdict is still out on whether she is an historical figure.

I've tried to read Plaidy but nothing ever took, but I've heard others praising her as well.

I have been hearing good things about Katherine Swynford: The Scandalous Duchess, Mistress of John of Gaunt by Alison Weir.
This is a biography, in as far as one can write the 'truth' about someone who lived over six hundred years ago.
Weir was talking on the radio the other day and explained how she first became interested in her subject after reading Katherine by Anya Seton.
I think I will put it on my Christmas pressy list . . . never too early!

Here is a link that might be useful: Alison Weir on her latest book.

I haven't heard about that particular Alison Weir book, but I did very much enjoy her first foray into historical fiction, Innocent Traitor: A Novel of Lane Jane Grey. Please let me know what you think about the newest book, Vee.

Weir has always been one of my favorite historical writers, and I loved Seton's Katherine, so that is a must read, thanks veer.

I've just started reading Alison Weir's "The Life of Elizabeth I". I have read other biographies of The Virgin Queen, e.g. David Starkey, but they were rather dry, IMO. Weir's style is really holding my interest and I hope to find her other works.

Ooo, that reminds me, the second Elizabeth movie with Cate Blanchett is coming out soon, I think this weekend.

Cindy, I can't wait to see "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" with Geofrey Rush and Russell Crowe. It promises to be even more splendid than the first. I note the release date is indeed October 12, but it has not yet opened in my city, alas....

(checking calendar) Hey don't make autumn go faster than it already is - thats next weekend :)

I'm about halfway through Alison Weir's "The Six Wives of Henry VII." It's the first of her work I've read and I'm really enjoying her style. Lots of interesting details, but not dry.

I'm hoping to see the new Elizabeth movie this weekend or next. I'll keep my eye out for RP opinions.

Um, we went last weekend. It was not as good as the first one, thats for sure. I will not spoil it for anyone, but do let me know what you think of it.

I enjoyed Amanda Foreman's biography of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. It is now being filmed with Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes under the title The Duchess. I think Keira Knightley is too skinny to play Georgiana who was quite buxom according to Gainsborough's portrait of her. I thought the same when KK played Elizabeth Bennet in P&P.

Cindy, I saw the new film on Queen Eliz. I and actually liked it, in its way. (I commented on it over on the Cinema Forum here). POSSIBLE SPOILERS: As I wrote, I liked the historical presence of Bess Throckmorton and Walter Raleigh, as well as Dr. John Dee, astrologer and advisor to Eliz. I found the scene with the huge Spanish Armada approaching the tiny island of Britain awesome. In general, I thought the film captured accurately the paranoia of the times, and the secretive court intrigues, layer upon layer of subterfuge. The scene with Eliz. ralleying her countrymen upon horseback in armour I found quite moving.

Why did you not like it as well as the first film???

I like the new genre category some reviewers have invented for this movie: Textile Porn.

I'd love to see it on the big screen just for the period costumes. But, I'll probably have to wait until it comes out on DVD.

OT: I've enjoyed the books Weir wrote about Queen Isabella (wife to Edward II) and Eleanor of Aquitaine. I think her bio of Queen Elizabeth is in my TBR pile, but I haven't read it yet.

SPOILERS!!!!!!!

That it was slow almost to the point of pain. That the actors moved about like they were in a tableau (in other words, very little) That the Amada scene for me was anti climactic. That Eliz is made out to be a love sick woman, rather than a great ruler (the best part was her speech to the troops, I agree). A reviewer suggested that the movie was like looking through a coffee table book of the time period. Thats how it felt for me. And there was no comparison to the first one (or to Helen Mirren's performance)