"The Bastard Princess" by Gemma Lawrence

I just finished a six-week course on the Tudor dynasty, offered (free, with some payment options) by the University of Roehampton in London. The course covered British history from 1485 to 1603, roughly the period from Henry VII through Elizabeth I. It was a fascinating look at a tumultuous period, including the English Reformation, Henry VIII and his six wives, the religious conflict that continued even with the Reformation, and how all three of Henry’s surviving children occupied the throne.

It was a good introduction to reading The Bastard Princess, a historical novel by British author Gemma Lawrenceabout the life of Elizabeth from childhood to her half-sister Mary becoming queen.

It is one compelling novel.

The story begins in 1603, the last year of Elizabeth’s life. She’s looking backwards at her family, her times, what she accomplished, and, most of all, how she learned to survive. Lawrence writes the account in the first person, reading almost like a journal or diary, and that perspective provides a sense of immediacy, urgency, and individuality. The Elizabeth that emerges from these pages is a girl who loves her father, understands early on how easy it is to make a misstep that can lead to imprisonment or death, and quietly mourns her mother, executed when Elizabeth was a young child:

“They said my mother had never my father; she had never been the Queen. They said she had done bad things. And then…they stopped talking of her at all. Her pictures and portraits disappeared from the walls…

Gemma Lawrence

“I was no longer to be called My Lady Princess or Your Highness. I was now just the Lady Elizabeth, the King’s bastard daughter. It was though I had never had a mother. But I remembered her…”

We walk with Elizabeth in her gardens, sit with her in her rooms, listen as she considers all that has happened and is happening, and become shocked when she falls in love with her stepmother’s husband. We see her learn from her tutors and how she teaches herself the art of survival. The story captures our attention and doesn’t let go. It shows Elizabeth as a highly intelligent, highly observant young woman.

Lawrence, an independently published author living in Cornwall in the U.K., is the author of a considerable number of historical novels. Her series include The Story of Catherine Howard, The Chronicles of Matilda, Lady Anne, and Elizabeth of England, of which The Bastard Princess is the first of eight.

Gemma Lawrence has told an enthralling story here. The Bastard Princess gives us an Elizabeth who is flesh and blood, always conscious of who she is, and always watchful of those who might both help and harm her. 

Set aside, marked

After Philippians 3:1-3

Set aside, marked,

being the sign

of the remnant,

those defined

by whom they look to,

by whom they glory in,

but what they place

their confidence in.

Set aside, marked,

as destruction rages

around them, 

the remnant protected,

the remnant saved.

Photograph by Tom Barrett via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Saturday Good Reads

It was published last March, but Matthew Teutsch at Public Books has a tribute to Ernest Gaines, the author of The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman who recently died. It’s actually rather nice that it was published Whiles Gaines still could read it.

Isaac Bashevis Singer (1902-1991) won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1978; he may have almost singlehandedly saved the Yiddish literature of Poland and Eastern Europe from extinction after the Holocaust. This week, The Los Angeles Review of Books published an essay by Singer, asking – and answering – the question, who needs literary fiction?

Those Nazi death camps were greater in number that many of us realize. We’re familiar with Auschwitz, Ravensbruck, Treblinka, and Bergen-Belson, largely because of the people who survived and were liberated by the Allied armies. But there were other camps that had virtually no survivors, and archaeologists are working at some of them. Elizabeth Svoboda at Scientific American has the story, including the opposition to the work that’s being stirred up.

Hector Dejean at Criminal Element takes a look at one of the most famous mystery novels of all time, The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley (1890-1957). It was published 100 years ago, and it remains an entertaining story. 

More Good Reads

Writing and Literature

Tolkien & Anglo-Saxon England: Protectors of Christendom – Bradley Birzer at The Imaginative Conservative.

Ibsen’s Soulcraft – Algis Valiunas at First Things Magazine.

The illusions of literary dystopias – Peter Hitchens at Standpoint Magazine.

History

9 Things You Should Know About the Armenian Genocide – Joe Carter at The Gospel Coalition.

Culture

Unending Descent and Hang ‘em High Chronicles – David Warren at Essays in Idleness.

Arise ye unwoke from your slumbers – David Cox at Standpoint Magazine.

Faith

Sehnsucht & the Intensity of Yearning – Mark Meynell at The Rabbit Room.

Is It Really More Blessed to Give? – Seth Lewis.

The Problem with “Spiritual but Not Religious” – David Qaoud at Gospel Relevance.

Poetry

Chasin’ Wild Horses – Bruce Springsteen at The Imaginative Conservative.

Quasimodo – Theresa Rodriguez at Society of Classical Poets.

British Stuff

Classics for the People – Edith Hall at Aeon Magazine.

Living Hope – Phil Wickham

Painting: Man reading, oil on canvas attributed to Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669).

He sent the best

After Philippians 2:19-30

When he sent his friend,

he sent the best,

his right arm, alter ego,

his brother, not counting

the cost, or accounting

for it, he sent the one

needed no matter

the consequence 

to himself, and it would

likely hurt. He sent more

than the best available;

he sent the man 

with the right heart,

the man who would move

and act, the man

he considered a son.

He was writing the book

of his friend’s life.

He was writing his own.

Photograph by Thiago Barletta via Unsplash. Used with permission.

“The Quayside Murder” by Roy Lewis

Attorney Eric Ward has been offered an assignment he likely can’t turn down – serving as a representative for a businessman looking to expand his operations in England’s northeast. As of the moment, Ward is recovering from the glaucoma surgery that may or may not work; against the adamant protest of the young woman he’s in love with (and who’s caring for him), he travels to London to see what the job offer is about. 

After his meeting, he’s on stairs near the train station, when he stumbles, or someone stumbles against him, or he’s pushed. Fortunately, a doctor is nearby. He’s able to resume his journey home, where he’s promptly reprimanded by the girlfriend.

Slowly he begins to learn that the businessman may be on the unscrupulous side, throwing his weight against the man who operates extensive criminal activities in the region. Ward reaches out to an old copper – Ward was on the police force before his glaucoma developed – to help his investigation.

And then things really begin to go awry, including a murder.

Roy Lewis

The Quayside Murder by Roy Lewis, set and originally published in the early 1980s, is the fourth in the Eric Ward mystery series, and it possesses enough twists and turns to keep the reader guessing for almost the whole story. It includes a romance theme that also keeps the reader guessing – will Ward get over his eyesight problem and his concern about seeing a much younger girlfriend and finally get married?

Lewis is the author of some 60 other mysteries, novels, and short story collections. His Inspector Crow series includes A Lover Too Many, Murder in the Mine, The Woods Murder, Error of Judgment, and Murder for Money, among others. The Eric Ward series, of which The Sedleigh Hall Murder is the first (and originally published as A Certain Blindness in 1981), includes 17 novels. The Arnold Landon series is comprised of 22 novels. Lewis lives in northern England. 

The Quayside Murder is another solid mystery in the Eric Ward series. It’s already become one of my favorite mystery series.

Related:

The Sedleigh Hall Murder by Roy Lewis.

A Cotswolds Murder by Roy Lewis.

The Farming Murder by Roy Lewis.

“Praying with Jane” (Austen) by Rachel Dodge

With all of the movies, remakes, novelizations, satires, and articles, the one thing you rarely if ever read about Jane Austen is her devout religious faith. 

Her father was an Anglican clergyman. The practice of the family’s faith was daily, including family morning and evening prayers, prayers before and after meals, private prayers, prayer before bedtime, and two lengthy worship services on Sunday. The family read devotional books together. 

In a short work, author Rachel Dodge helps to broaden the understanding of Austen’s faith. Praying with Jane is a devotional work with 31 daily entries that use three beautiful prayers written by Austen herself. Dodge structures each entry with a portion of the prayer, a brief discussion from Austen’s biography, letters, or works, and an invitation to pray, including a short prayer.

Rachel Dodge

“Reading Jane’s prayers,” she writes in the introduction, “is a bit like looking into her heart. In them, we get to know another side of Jane’s personality—a more serious and reverent side. They reveal a genuine, practical faith in Jesus Christ.”

Dodge is an author, speaker, workshop leader, college lecturer, and a writer for the Jane Austen World blog. In addition to Praying with Jane, featured during the month of October at Literary Life, she’s currently working on a devotional based on Anne of Green Gables.

You can likely read Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility and enjoy the works without knowing the details of the author’s life, including her religious faith. But to read a short, simple work like Praying with Jane is to have one’s eyes opened about underpinned the works and life of one of English literature’s most beloved authors.

Related:

Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James.

Second Impressions by Pepper Basham.

Six Reasons Why Authors Edit Their Manuscripts

Editing has been much on mind lately, and I’m learning that editing requires more of my time and focus than drafting the original manuscript.

I’m working on the fifth, and final, novel in a five-book series. This one has taken more time to write; I’m aiming for something more ambitious than its four predecessors. I’ve been through the complete draft five separate times and worked on partial segments countless other times. I know I have at least two more complete editing reviews before I turn it over to the official editor and publisher.

Editing is meticulous, time-consuming work. Writing the first draft can be exhausting and certainly more exhilarating, but editing is often where the real work starts – and seems to never end. It’s not perfectionism. Instead, editing is a complete mental, emotional, and spiritual engagement with the text you’ve created. 

As I’ve worked through this manuscript, I realized I’m editing for six reasons.

To continue reading, please see my post today at the American Christian Fiction Writers blog.

Photograph by Andrew Neel via Unsplash. Used with permission.