The Lady of Misrule

The Lady of Misrule could be Lady Jane Grey the Nine Days Queen or it could be her newly appointed companion Elizabeth Tilney. Elizabeth volunteered to accompany Lady Jane to her new apartments at the Tower of London in order to escape her own domestic situation. A good Catholic girl had been requested and Elizabeth has tried very hard to be that but it hasn’t been easy. At first it seems the two young woman have very little in common and Elizabeth finds being shut away very dull but gradually she makes a friend of Jane and of her young husband and of those who are charged with keeping the young couple under lock and key. However the imprisonment cannot continue forever and shut away as they are they are unaware of the machinations and scheming that are happening at court and when the end comes, it is a shock to them all. Suzannah Dunn continues to build a reputation as the queen of Tudor fiction and this book is another testament to her skill, she has made the minutiae of the domestic and women’s day to day lives her canvas and despite her use of modern language in place of more archaic speech there is an intrinsic truth in the dialogue and interaction between the young people in this novel which makes it compelling reading. 

This review originally appeared in HNR 73 see it online HERE