This is exactly what I feel when I'm doing my dissertation on Elizabeth I. Sometimes you struggle to put your passion into words and then when you meet similar minded people you can't shut up :). Hope the tv adaptation is going to be as good as her books.
wow, agree so much with fatparrot66 Wolf Hall great readnot the one dimensional, simplified pap we can name from some historical novellists! Beloved of the media! and the Beeb! Wolf Hall is a gem and the sequal, a must read for lovers of real history! David Starkey and Hilary Mantel have a genuine feel for history that's always worth listening to.
I loved wolf hall and bring up the bodies, both great books containing great prose, very unique. but I refuse to believe that Anne Boleyn was such a bitch; Mantel really does not give her much credit in the books. But then again I guess it wouldn't have worked otherwise, not for a Cromwell-centric story. Still... I fear Anne is potrayed very badly in both installments and this is the books' one great flaw. that lady was so much more than an ambitious, cold, scheming hysteric -- she was one of the most fascinating and gifted courtiers of her time, a queen with a religious vision and a self-made woman with an intelligence and spirit the equal of any man's. a truly great female
