HISTORICAL FICTION REVIEW: The Queen of Silks - Vanora Bennett

BOOK BLURB:
Don't confuse Vanora Bennett with Philippa Gregory. Granted, it wouldn't be a stretch to do so: Both are female British writers whose novels focus largely on the lives of English royalty in the 15th and 16th centuries. But not everything about their work runs parallel. While it seems that Gregory has pretty much cornered the market on writing about the Tudors, Bennett tends to write about the people just on the edge of history. Her latest book, Figures in Silk, is a fast read that effortlessly brings to life one of England's most tumultuous periods. Figures in Silk captures the uncertainty of a world in flux, a mood that many of its readers may share as their own world shifts around them. And yet those looking for escape will find this book offers a satisfying respite. Vanora Bennett's medieval England comes alive in ways a reader cab immediately related to, even while being transported away from the modern world. --Christian Science Monitor, March 2009


REVIEW:

When two authors write books close together set in the same time period you’ll always get comparisons between the two. In this case Vanora Bennett Vs Philippa Gregory in their own War of the Roses. As you’ve no doubt already read our review about Philippa’s novel we’ll waste no more time than to dive into our thoughts about Vanora’s novel.

Whilst the time period is interesting and there’s plenty of time to play with and speculate in regard to the fates of the populace from peasant to royal, there are certain things that you come to expect from a novel. For one thing time consistency rather than a bit of a hodge podge darting around with the events that in a strictly linear sense shouldn’t be malleable. Whilst Vanora really did do a lot of research in order to bring the novel to life, it’s the lackadaisical sense of the time period that she really did make some stunningly simple errors with which when you’re used to the best in historical fiction really shouldn’t have happened. Add to this a principle cast member who I just couldn’t get to grips with and didn’t gel with what I already knew from history alongside Philippa’s time period and you get a novel that left me feeling a tad dissatisfied. A great shame as its one of the great time periods of British History. Vanora is a talented author and its only her descriptiveness and attention to the minutae that made this novel worth reading to have the glaring error’s really shouldn’t have happened and with luck the characters within future novels will be more engaging for me as a reader.