Book 1 in The Elizabeth of England Chronicles series.
The position of a queen is more dangerous than that of a common man. For there is farther to fall, and there are more people who would wish your destruction than any commoner could imagine.
The Bastard Princess is a first person memoir detailing the life and thoughts of the woman who would eventually become Queen Elizabeth I, from her very early childhood through her teenage years to the beginning of the reign of her sister, Mary I.
As a memoir, it offers a deeply personal portrayal of Elizabeth, not as a queen, but as a child and young woman with thoughts and feelings of her own. From a precocious child who worships her distant, larger than life father and quietly mourns the absence of her mother, to a naive teenage girl who falls head over heels in love with the highly unsuitable Thomas Seymour, Elizabeth eventually emerges as a politically savvy young adult who manages to keep herself safe after the death of her younger brother Edward VI leads to a succession dispute that eventually sees Elizabeth’s older sister Mary take the throne as Mary I.
Elizabeth’s voice is gentle, intelligent and nostalgic. Where some accounts of the Tudors are sweeping, broad strokes focused on conflict, drama and battles, The Bastard Princess is much more intimate and quiet, letting Elizabeth tell her story the way she wants, focusing not on the big outside world, but on the private, inside thoughts and feelings that shaped the girl and young woman who later went on to be known as the Virgin Queen.
Historical fiction
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