The First Marie by Linda Root
One of On the Tudor Trail’s readers emailed me to recommend this book by Linda Root. I had not previously heard of this novel or the author but think it sounds very interesting.
The First Marie is the initial offering in a trilogy revolving around the life and times of Marie Stuart, Queen of Scots.
Here is part of the synopsis:
“The astonishingly beautiful queen who reigned at the Twelfth Night festivities at Holyrood was not the Queen of Scots, but her petite blond cousin Marie Flemyng, ranked first among Marie Stuart’s Four Maries. She won her night of sovereignty in a lottery in which she found a bean hidden in a slice of cake. As a result, she was crowned Queen of the Bean, a female counterpart to the traditional Lord of Misrule. Her performance was so spellbinding that news of it circulated to the European courts. Elizabeth Tudor heard of it from her envoy Randolph, who compared Flemyng to the goddesses Venus, Juno and Minerva. During the turbulent years that followed, the woman known as La Flamina captured the heart of Scotland’s premier diplomat William Maitland, sharing a vision of Scotland’s future that placed her in grave danger. At odds not only with the queen of Scots but with the men who sought to bring the queen to ruin, the First Marie risked her life, her fortune and her future as she freed herself from a life of service to the queen and found an identity of her own.”
With 724 pages, this is a whopper of a novel but from what I have been told – superb!
It also contains 25 illustrations from the authors own original drawings.
To read the full synopsis or to purchase a copy click here.
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