Exclusive interview with author Margaret George and a review of her new novel about Queen Elizabeth and life in the age of Shakespeare
Rating: 3 Stars
By Gabrielle Pantera
“The number one question people ask is: ‘Was she really a virgin?’,” says Elizabeth I author Margaret George. “They seem obsessed with this and worried that she missed out on some fun. They keep asking me for proof that she was one way or the other, which is of course impossible to judge hundreds of years later.”
“My novel about Elizabeth starts where most stop, at the Armada,” says George. “To me that is the most interesting part of her reign. She is at the height of her power but most in danger of losing it. It was England’s golden age. It was Elizabeth’s time to truly shine in all her magnificence. Also, the people associated with the Elizabethan Age….Shakespeare, Marlowe, Drake, Raleigh….come onto the scene then.”
Elizabeth I is the story of Elizabeth as told by the queen and Lettice Knolly, the widow of the Queen’s former favorite Robert Dudley. Studded with luminaries of the day, George’s book is essentially a Who’s Who of the Elizabethan age. George covers the last 25 years of Elizabeth’s life. The details are lush and vibrant. With almost 700 pages, you really feel as though you’re in Elizabeth’s world. George gives us a view the world around Elizabeth as she would see it and as those around her see the world and their sovereign. It’s a great primer for gaining a deeper understanding of Elizabeth I.
In Elizabeth I, it’s 1588 and Elizabeth faces the Spanish Armada. The massive Spanish fleet seems invincible. Elizabeth is regal and vulnerable in turns, powerful yet lonely at the same time. Her life is glamorous. We get to know her life and to know the men and women surrounding her.
George says she got the idea for the book while she was writing The Autobiography of Henry VIII, that Elizabeth was the reason for his hurry-up marriage to Anne Boleyn. “It was odd to think of the mighty iconic queen Elizabeth once being just an expected child who caused her mother to act strangely and laugh about her overpowering desire to eat apples. But she turned out to be a girl instead of the longed-for boy, a real disappointment to her parents. No one could ever have predicted what she would grow up into…the ablest ruler England ever had, who gave her name to an age.”
George researched her book’s facts in Great Britain. “I spent a fair amount of time in England, mostly around London, like Elizabeth herself,” says George. “That most English of queens did not see all of her country by any means. It goes without saying that I read a great deal of background, and spoke to scholars and experts, as well as visit museums. There is almost too much about Elizabeth and her times. The hardest part is to know which source to trust.”
George is currently writing a novel about Boudica, the British warrior-queen whose wheeled chariot statue stands near the Houses of Parliament. The Roman emperor Nero was her adversary. “Boudica came close to driving the Romans out of England,” says George. “How different history would have been if she’d succeeded.”
Margaret George is based in Madison, Wisconsin. She was born in Nashville, Tennessee. www.margaretgeorge.com
Elizabeth I: A Novel by Margaret George. Hardcover, 688 pages, Publisher: Viking Adult (April 5, 2011), Language: English. ISBN: 9780670022533
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