Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Rebecca Hazell. She has just released her latest novel, The War Queens . While researching her family heritage allowed her to discover a previously unknown link to Queens Brunhilda and Fredegunda. These women have been judged harshly at times throughout history. Thank you, Mrs. Hazell for the wonderful interview! What inspired you to write a novel about Queen Brunhilda and Queen Fredegunda? I was researching my family tree and discovered that I’m supposedly descended from both of them. Looking them up on Wikipedia , I came up with far more questions than answers and started digging into serious histories. Their biographies, which are full of gaps, fascinated me, especially since a close reading of the most reliable history tells quite a different story from what is commonly accepted about them. I wanted to tell their stories from a fresh point of view that humanizes them. Brunhilda and Fredegunda were not the traditional medieval women th
Mistress Anne Author: Carolly Erickson Genre: Nonfiction, History, Biography Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin Release Date: 1998 Pages: 304 Source: My personal collection Synopsis: As Maureen Quilligan wrote in the New York Times Book Review of The First Elizabeth , Anne Boleyn "was a real victim of the sexual scandals her brilliant daughter escaped, and a subject Ms. Erickson's sensitivity to sexual and political nuance should well serve." Indeed, Carolly Erickson could have chosen no more fascinating and appropriate a subject. Alluring and profoundly enigmatic, Anne Boleyn has eluded the grasp of historians for centuries. Through her extraordinarily vivid re-creation of this most tragic chapter in all Tudor History, Carrolly Erickson gives us unprecedented insight into the singuarlity of Anne Boleyn's life, the dark and overwhelming forces that shaped her errant destiny, and the rare, tumultuous times in which she lived. My Review: Anne Boleyn is the most