The White Queen: Philippa Gregory

“A comic novel, a fast paced thriller demand little and their reward is immediate – they are ice-cream reading and barely a trace of their flavour remains half an hour after they are finished.  Sometimes only ice cream will do.”

This is from Susan Hill’s book ‘Howards End is on the Landing,’ about the pleasures and joys of reading (of which more in a later post.)

The White Queen is ice-cream reading and no mistake.  But there’s no point in being snobby about it.  Literature exists on a sliding scale from say, Shakespeare at one end, to the new biography of Angelina Jolie at the other.  You can’t always be hanging round down the heavy end.  Tolstoy is no good for a sun lounger.  Proust doesn’t work by the pool.  You need Phillipa Gregory for times like this.  And The White Queen is good ice cream.  Maybe not hand churned amaretto gelato, but certainly Ben and Jerrys.

You don’t read Phillipa Gregory for the writing or the historical accuracy, you read her for the story.  And the basic bare bones of this story are so good, you can’t go wrong.  Elizabeth Woodville is a Lancastrian commoner who marries the York King Edward IV, and this is the story of the Wars of the Roses.  In predictable middle ages style, Princes, Lords and Earls are constantly swearing undying fealty and then raising an army and marching against the King.  Thankfully, there’s not too much bodice ripping, and lots of action.  And I can never hear the story of the Princes in the Tower too many times.  Never mind ‘what was Stonehenge built for?’ or ‘who was Jack the Ripper?’ – ‘who murdered the Princes’ is my favourite unsolved historical mystery.

Susan Hill’s quote finishes: “We are not nourished physically, mentally, artistically or spiritually by its literary equivalent.” And that’s true.  But sometimes you need entertainment, not nourishment.  That’s what Phillipa Gregory is for.

Woman cannot live by ice-cream alone, though.  Back to real books now.