from amazon:
A comprehensive account of the life of Eleanor of Aquitaine. The wife of King Louis VII of France and then of King Henry II of England, and mother to Richard Coeur de Lion and King John, she became the key political figure of the 12th century. Eleanor's long life inspired a number of legends. At twenty-five she set out for the Holy Land as a Crusader and at seventy-eight she crossed the Pyreness to Spain to fetch the granddaughter whose marriage would be, she hoped, a pledge of peace between England and France.

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

On the book table or left somewhere in the city during the release walk.

Hello!

If this is your introduction to Bookcrossing, welcome, and congratulations on finding this book! Enjoy reading the book,and I hope you will let us know what you thought - as few or as many comments as you wish. It is now yours to do with as you wish - keep it, pass it on, but please leave the label, so it can keep in touch with us. If you would like to know what happens to the book after it has left you, then do join - it's private and it's fun!
And if you do choose to join, please consider using me, rahar109, as your referring member.

Happy Bookcrossing!

I tried to be nosey and get advance information on some of the books to be released at the Edinburgh Unconvention. It wasn't a very successful exercise but I did see the Release Notes on this one before I left home and headed North determined to pick to be the BookCrosser to pick it up, if at all possible, even if it meant elbowing others out of the way .... Well, I didn't have to be totally ruthless but I did get to the table very early on Saturday morning and I did squirrel it away in my bag out of sight of other prying eyes fairly speedily :-)

Thank you, rahar109. I'm fascinated by the Medieval world and love to read some 'proper' history as well as novels. I find Eleanor of Aquitaine a particularly interesting character and look forward to reading this account of her life.

It was good to meet you, albeit rather briefly!

I read many historical novels, quite a few of them set in the Medieval era, so, together with my vague memories of school history lessons, I've grown fairly familiar with Eleanor of Aquitaine over the years - but I felt my knowledge was piecemeal, incomplete and probably subject to unsubstantiated myths and legends, so I've been looking forward to reading a straightforward history of her life for some time.

Unfortunately this isn't what I was looking for! Marion Meade is no Alison Weir, another historian who writes popular works, several of which I've enjoyed in the past. MM's style is as easy to read as many novels - but therein lies part of my problem: this is too easy to read, too much like a novel, too informal for my liking. I didn't appreciate her use of sweeping generalisations and assumptions. I was particularly irked by her tendency to write: she 'must have' felt, thought, wondered etc. Must she? Well, not necessarily....

I hope this book finds a suitable new reader, someone who can ignore my stylistic objections and enjoy it as a comprehensive account of the life and times of a fascinating, larger-than-life 12th century personality.

As an aside, I must admit that Katharine Hepburn, as she appears in The Lion in Winter, is permanently cast as Eleanor of Aquitaine in my imagination!

Thanks again for making this available, rahar109.

I hope to attend my first Leeds Meet Up in the West Yorkshire Playhouse this week, bringing a couple of contributions to the fun! Looking forward to meeting some BookCrossers I've never met before....

Picked this up in a cafe in Leeds when I was there for a party in February 2010. It took me a long time to get through it (finished it on the train this morning) but that is no reflection of its content; just me not having much time to read. In short, it is a really enjoyable book; factual but compelling and easy to read. I would recommend this to anybody who is a fan of Alison Weir as Meade's style of writing is somewhat similar. I now plan on reading Alison Weir's version so see how it measures up. Watch this space!