Readers will share Tallis’ sympathy with the devout, passive Jane but also approve of her emphasis on the more powerful,...
A new biography of the Nine Day Queen, “a young lady sacrificed through the actions of powerful and ambitious manipulators in the complex world of sixteenth-century politics.”
After the death of Protestant Edward VI in 1553, his Catholic sister, Mary, was heir to the English throne. Preferring a Protestant, the dying Edward proclaimed his 17-year-old cousin, Lady Jane Grey, as his successor. Most lords were too law-abiding to tolerate this action, so she was quickly deposed and executed. Many scholars of the period mention this in passing, but in her first book, Tallis, resident historian for Alison Weir Tours, makes an energetic case that Grey deserves more attention. Almost all existing documents cover only her final months, but Tallis does an admirable job turning up sources on her subject’s early life which concentrate on her high-ranking parents and Jane’s intense religious education; she was very pious. As is usual for biographies where evidence is lacking, the author concentrates on the great events of those years that are turbulent enough to satisfy readers. Henry VIIII, despite breaking with the pope, had little interest in radical religious reform. This was not the case after his son, Edward VI, succeeded in 1547. With approval of the new king, Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, pushed through changes that created a visibly Protestant Church of England. Most Englishmen remained Catholic, and even sympathetic nobles felt that Mary’s legal claim to the throne overrode religious considerations, so Edward’s deathbed decree was brushed aside. Jane was never crowned, but neither were Edward V or Edward VIII, so the author maintains that she was queen of England, if only for slightly less than a fortnight.
Readers will share Tallis’ sympathy with the devout, passive Jane but also approve of her emphasis on the more powerful, ambitious, and unpleasant men and women that surrounded her.Pub Date: Dec. 6, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-68177-244-8
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Pegasus
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2016
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
This autobiography might almost be said to supply the roots to Wright's famous novel, Native Son.
It is a grim record, disturbing, the story of how — in one boy's life — the seeds of hate and distrust and race riots were planted. Wright was born to poverty and hardship in the deep south; his father deserted his mother, and circumstances and illness drove the little family from place to place, from degradation to degradation. And always, there was the thread of fear and hate and suspicion and discrimination — of white set against black — of black set against Jew — of intolerance. Driven to deceit, to dishonesty, ambition thwarted, motives impugned, Wright struggled against the tide, put by a tiny sum to move on, finally got to Chicago, and there — still against odds — pulled himself up, acquired some education through reading, allied himself with the Communists — only to be thrust out for non-conformity — and wrote continually. The whole tragedy of a race seems dramatized in this record; it is virtually unrelieved by any vestige of human tenderness, or humor; there are no bright spots. And yet it rings true. It is an unfinished story of a problem that has still to be met.
Perhaps this will force home unpalatable facts of a submerged minority, a problem far from being faced.
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 1945
ISBN: 0061130249
Page Count: 450
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1945
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
