Innocent Traitor

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RC: What makes the Tudor period of English history so perennially fascinating to you and to so many readers? The book is written in the first person, which helps change, the perspective of looking at history. You look at the events from the point of view of the character, in the event, at that time. It adds certain emotion and ‘personality’ to the event(s) and allows history to become warmer than a chronological the presentation of cold facts. And a brave attempt, may I add, for Alison says:

Innocent Traitor - Historical Novel Society Innocent Traitor - Historical Novel Society

An impressive debut. Weir shows skill at plotting and maintaining tension, and she is clearly going to be a major player in the . . . historical fiction game.” AW: I’d never leave out substantiated facts just because they sound farfetched. My editor suggested I omit a certain passage because it sounded “too contrived,” whereupon I pointed out that many historians also used to think it too contrived, but that the story came from a reliable source and is now accepted as fact by most scholars. The passage in question was the one in which the warrant for Katherine Parr’s arrest was fortuitously dropped in a corridor and found by one of her servants, who hastened to warn her. Lady Jane Grey, born either 1536 or 1537, was highly gifted, precocious and intelligent but she was born into a time when her life was constrained by her parents and their machinations at the royal court. Her birth was a disappointment to her parents who, like most medieval parents, had longed for a son although they soon pinned their hopes on her marrying Henry VIII's son, Edward VI. But during Edward's final illness their choice for Jane changed, due to the machinations of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland and Edward's Regent, and she was betrothed to the Duke's own son, Guildford Dudley. Jane was, of course Edward's cousin and had been named his successor to the throne, apparently after much 'handling' by the Duke. An impressive debut. Weir shows skill at plotting and maintaining tension, and she is clearly going to be a major player in the . . . historical fiction game.”— The IndependentThe story starts with her birth in 1537. The daughter of Lady Frances Brandon and Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, Jane is seen as a burden by her parents, both of whom resent her for being a girl instead of a boy, and is regularly beaten by her mother. ... As a child, Jane is treated poorly by her parents, although her father shows some interest in her. She is an engaging child, with a curious mind. She enjoys learning—from languages to music to the classics. The book’s treatment of her makes her into a little woman when she was probably too young to think in the manner attributable to her. Still, in that era, childhood as we know it did not exist.

Innocent Traitor - Penguin Books UK Innocent Traitor - Penguin Books UK

RC: Yet despite the patriarchal culture, strong women could and did emerge, women like Jane and her cousin, Elizabeth. What accounts for that, do you think?Hrm. I think I would've enjoyed this more if it had been a straightforward history textbook instead of an attempt at prose. The multiple POVs are mutually indistinguishable, Jane at age 4 sounding the same as her mother as the queen as the duke and so on. The dialogue all sounds scripted, and the emotions are overwrought and rarely wring true.

Innocent Traitor - Wikipedia Innocent Traitor - Wikipedia

This riveting, richly descriptive novel chronicles the life of Lady Jane Grey. For those unfamiliar with British royal history, fifteen-year-old Lady Jane was named queen of England for nine days in July 1553. She was well-born, highly educated, and a devout Protestant. As the great-niece of King Henry VIII, it would have been customary for her family to forge a marriage alliance with one of the first families of the realm. Her parents have royal ambitions, however, and that is what precipitates tragedy.she goes over, in her head~although she is exhausted and all she wants to do is sleep~i can definitely relate to that~for the thousandth time how she came to be there), beginning with Jane's birth up to her execution. RC: In your author’s note, you write: “Some parts of the book may seem far-fetched: they are the parts most likely to be based on fact.” This bears out the old adage of truth being stranger than fiction. Were there facts that you felt you had to leave out because they would have seemed too farfetched? It is so interesting, how, even when you know the story well, it can still move you to tears when it is well told, as it is here in Weir's expert hands. Weir is an accomplished and much respected historian, her accuracy is not in question, but she writes in her afterword about how freeing it is to be able to speculate on the psychology and inner workings of the players in this very real drama (it's also interesting to note that some of the most unbelievable pieces of the story are the ones that are of undisputed fact). This story is not only about Jane, but about the life and death intrigue of the day to day life of the Tudor court~and many of the voices in this novel often wish to be commoners rather than players on the royal, and very public stage (although i've always said IF i HAD to live in that place and time the only person i would want to be would be Anne of Cleves, because, though she was said to be ugly {which i'm not entirely convinced of} and smell bad), she had the most freedom of all {once her marriage was annulled}).

Innocent Traitor - Alison Weir - Google Books Innocent Traitor - Alison Weir - Google Books

RC: It must have felt liberating to be able to do away with footnotes for once. But fiction, especially historical fiction, has its own constraints, and I wonder if you found yourself bumping up against them.Innocent Traitor is good historical fiction that isn't smutted up. The only real problem is the multiple points of view. It is not there are too many speakers, but that too many speakers sound alike. There does not seem to be that much difference in tone between Katherine Parr and Frances Brandon in tone. This could be explained by the education that woman received, but some difference in tone would be nice. The only voice that really stands out in this regard is the voice of Mrs Ellen, Lady Jane's nurse. Mrs Ellen's voice is distinct and individual. Each section really does need the speaker's name out at the top otherwise the reader would only know who is speaking by the actions the character does. Multiple narrators are fine, but they should be distinct, like, for instance, in The Girl With No Shadow