The Virgin's Lover
by Philippa Gregory
HarperCollins $112
The story of Elizabeth Tudor, bastard child of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, has always fascinated. It's almost a given, then, that any telling of her life - especially one in a fictional format - will have a receptive audience. The book begins in 1558 with bells tolling to announce that Elizabeth I is the new queen. But France, Spain and Scotland pose immediate problems, not to mention the continuing struggle between Catholics and Protestants. Pressure is on Elizabeth I to marry and align England with another country for support. But she dithers on account of a childhood friend, Sir Robert, an ambitious and much-detested man who becomes her lover. Philippa Gregory - well known for other historical novels such as The Queen's Fool and The Other Boleyn Girl - includes in the story the third party in the equation: Sir Robert's doting wife, Amy Dudley. Gregory obviously has a gift for dressing up history for the masses. Her characters in The Virgin's Lover, however, seem to go through the motions in playing their roles. Instead of taking charge in a way that fiction allows, they appear simply to perform to a tried-and-tested script.