Blood Sisters

A good, informative read!

This is absolutely first class, and a perfect example of how wonderfully detailed research coupled with highly intelligent interpretation of the facts, the personalities, the contexts in which their lives were lived and their relationships with the events surging around them can produce a thoroughly readable, enjoyable history book.Sarah Gristwood is examining the lives of many of the key women within the period of the Cousin's War (currently being examined fictionally by Philippa Gregory). In doing so, she sheds valuable light on the kings, crowned, putative, or sometimes deposed, around whose destinies great families rose and fell during what we know as the Wars of Roses. The reasons behind these bloody events are fully explained and the author's style and readability make complex matters, in the dim and distant past, come alive in dynamic prose. Although these women did wield not swords in battle, their roles as mothers, daughters, sisters and wives meant their challenges were no less real. For example, Elizabeth Woodville, Queen to Edward the Fourth, had to flee into sanctuary with her children twice as the shifting tides of power politics tore the ground from under her feet. Another interesting, more shadowy lady, is Margaret of Burgundy, sister of Edward the Fourth, who meddled from afar by supporting at least two successive imposters purporting to be her nephew (one of the Princes in the Tower)and thus a challenge to Henry the Seventh's nascent Tudor dynasty. All fascinating stuff.I cannot praise this book too highly and the illustrations which accompany the text are also carefully and meaningfully selected.

What a really interesting and well-researched book this is. From start to finish it is enthralling and very well-written.This part of English history must be one of the most researched and written about, Alison Weir, David Starkey, Philippa Gregory et al but sometimes someone brings a fresh look and this is it.

This book was highly recommended in BBC History magazine, and it well worth the read. Seven key women from the War of the Roses and their roles are examined in a vivid and thought-provoking way. Gristwood has the book organized in such a way that it is easy to cross reference to keep the players straight, but is such a good writer that very quickly the women take on their own personalities and uniqueness that you feel like you have known each one of them like old college chums by the end. A page-turner as the bloody and brutal soap opera unfolds, but one that makes you wish Gristwood would go on and write individual books about each woman so you can dig that much deeper. Research brings new understanding of the economics, ceremonies and politics that surround the War of the Roses. One thing she also makes so evident is that people throughout the ages don't really change - the schemers and survivors, innocent victims, social climbers could be jumping right off the pages of the National Enquirer today.

The book describes the "War of the Roses" from a female perspective throughout the whole war period and gives a detailed insight, how the lives of these ladies were linked to each other and to the fate of their respective husbands and alliances until the early years of Henry VIII.The author succeeds in bringing the main personalities alive and the whole story reads like a family adventure saga and it is difficult to put the book aside.No fiction is needed - it was history which has written the script - retold in a perfect way in this book!From my perspective this book is highly recommendable for those interested in British history.