I found this book in an old box of college books. I read it as part of an independent study. I love Antonia Fraser and Mary Queen of Scots. It was a good if a bit scholarly read.

Released on Friday, November 07, 2003 at sent to fellow BookCrosser in postal release, postal release USA.

Sent to Kernow8 as the first leg of a Bookray! Please be sure to send it on to Shaunesay in Kansas when you are finished. The Bookray order is posted with my profile! Happy Reading everyone!

This weighty tome arrived in my mailbox today! It looks rather daunting but I'm sure it'll be fine once I get into it. This is next up on my non-novel reading list, I should start it early next week. Thanks!

I thought this was an excellent biography, written by someone who obviously thought Mary Queen of Scots was a victim of circumstances rather than a calculating, adulterous murderer - the latter of which seemed to be what her contemporary enemies thought of her, or at least how they portrayed her for their own ends. It was quite hard to keep up with who was who in the Scottish nobility, as they changed names (and allegiance!) quite often, but on the whole the book flowed surprisingly well, as Fraser spent a lot of time with descriptions of clothes, buildings, landscapes, pastimes, customs, etc which helped to transport the reader into the 16th century.

Mary Stuart had an absolutely fascinating life. Before I read this I barely knew more than her name - and I certainly didn't realise that today's British royal family was directly descended from her! I now know so much more about her. I think at the time that I did history in school (I only studied it up to age 16 - after that the narrow education system we have in England forced me to abandon humanities and restrict myself to science and maths if I wanted a scientific/engineering/medical career) we only really touched on key dates, battles, royal family trees etc in quite a superficial way, and while that information lasted long enough to pass the required exam, it disappeared soon after. Reading a 600-page biography certainly seems a better way of learning history - there is so much more context which can't help but make sure some of those key facts stay with me for longer. I hope so anyway!

Thanks very much for sharing - it is now in the mail to shaunesay. Sorry I held onto it for so long!

Just received! Will read and then journal again!

update 1/17/04: Starting today, I got deluged with about 9 bookring/ray books all at once! I will try to get through as quickly as I can! I'm sorry for taking so long!

Well, I'm not all the way through, but I feel as though I've had this way too long and I need to pass it on! I got about a third of the way through and must say I would like to try again someday on this title. I never knew very much about Mary and was interested to know that she was so connected to France! I liked the part where they were talking about the dress inventories and the hair pieces and would love to visit the places they talk about. AND it would appear that she liked books, so she's our type of Queen! I didn't make it to her captivity, so I may have missed the most interesting part of the history, but as I said, I feel that I've had it too long and need to keep it moving! I apologize, and thank you again MandMsMom for the opportunity to know Mary a little better!

Planned mailing 1/31/04 - pending address receipt from lshsmom

Received in the mail last week..... I have a couple of reads in front of it.