In the year 1629, a young English lutenist arrives at the Danish Court to join King Christian IV's Royal Orchestra. Designated the King's 'Angel' because of his good looks, he finds himself falling in love with the young woman who is the companion of the King's adulterous and estranged wife, Kirsten.

I really enjoyed this book and hope the next reader will like it too.

Now being sent on a bookray consisting of:

sunflowergirl
nice-cup-of-tea
geishabird
swanofkennet
lennyb
urbanspaceman

The ray has begun - sent to sunflowergirl today. Hope you will all enjoy it!

I've just got home after a week away and found this book waiting for me. I have three other ring books here waiting to be read as well so I'll get through them as fast as I can but please bear with me.

Thanks for sharing this book.

I really enjoyed this book, I liked the way it was written and how we got the story from the viewpoint each of the characters. It did take me a few days to read this book but it was easy to pick up and just read a few pages whenever I had time. The story was predictable in many ways but this didn't spoil my enjoyment of it at all.

Thanks for letting me be a part of your book ring.

*****

I've already got nice-cup-of-tea's address so I'll send this book on as soon as I can.

I've posted this book to nice-cup-of-tea today.

Received this latest bookring in the post today - thanks hayley for sending and Claire for organising! One book ahead of it, but am looking forward immensely to reading it!

A wonderful book, beautifully written, full of stories and characters and a sense of history. I loved the central theme of music as a method of organising chaos into simplicity. Kirsten, almost queen of Denmark, is evil, adulterous but strangely compelling. I liked the way a lot of her Thoughts were Capitalised! I also liked the sub plot and love story between George and Charlotte. A truly wonderful novel! Waiting for Geishabird's address...

Favourite quote (given that i studied German at university!): p121
"She is seated next to Sir Mark Langton Smythe and they converse in German, whcih language Sir Mark has striven to perfect, liking as he does the way the verb withholds itself from its own completion until the last moment in almost every sentence, thus imparting to all linguistic constructions a hanging thread of mystery."

Sent to Geishabird in Toronto today (Aug 18) B post

Received today...thank you! I enjoyed Tremain's Restoration and am looking forward to reading more of her work.

Well, count me in as another fan of this book; I thought it was terrific. Beautifully written and a compelling mix of characters, events and observations. I'm glad that this story was told using a variety of points of view; I find that this kind of narrative often gives a richer and more insightful picture of the world inside the novel - that is, if the writer can pull it off, and Tremain certainly does. She creates distinctive and often unexpected voices for her characters. I think I liked this even more than Restoration, although that was wonderful too. Historical fiction is a tricky thing; it so often comes across as heavy-handed, silly or melodramatic, but Tremain gets it right and makes it a pleasure to read. Thanks for sharing this book with us, clarrie-rose.

I have SwanOfKennet's address and the book will be mailed tomorrow.

...all life is an unravelling towards catastrophe. In our acceptance of that inevitable catastrophe lies our only chance that we may survive it, that we may move out from the great northerly shadow of all that we could not achieve into the clear water beyond. And so begin again. And always again...

Postscript:

Sometimes when reading a book that captures my imagination as this one did, I amuse myself by imagining who I'd cast as cetain characters if the book were to be made into a film. These are some of my picks for Music and Silence:

Peter Claire - Orlando Bloom
King Christian IV - Geoffrey Rush
Kirsten Munk - Catherine Zeta-Jones
Emilia Tilsen - Kirsten Dunst
Francesca O'Fingal - Juliette Binoche
Otto Ludwig - Jude Law
Queen Sofie - Glenn Close
Jens Ingemann - John Hurt

(I drew a blank for Magdalena...any thoughts?)

Mailed today...enjoy!

Finally arrived today - thaank you!