The White Queen of Middleham

This novel relates Anne Neville's life from her early childhood in Calais and Middleham as heiress to the Earl of Warwick the Kingmaker to her death as Queen to Richard III, the last Plantagenet king. This book was first published in the 70's with the original title "The white queen", the present publisher was forced to reprint it adding "of Middleham" to the title so that it was not mistaken for later Gregory's book on Elizabeth Woodville. I read it in the original edition second hand and I am so glad it has been reprinted with such a wonderful cover image so that a wider audience will have the opportunity to enjoy it.

The story is narrated in the third person, mostly from Anne's point of view, with some parts of the story shifting to Richard's point of view, an expedient that makes the story more interesting, enjoyable and complete. The author underwent a very thourough research of historical records for the background story and after recently visiting Middleham and surroundings myself I bet she visited those places at the time of writing as well, since some descriptions of Anne and Richard's childhood and marital home are too accurate and lively to be based on word of mouth only. Ms Nickell also chose to give an interesting even though necessarily fictional account of Anne's relationship to the two bastard children (especially the girl, Katherine) Richard had fathered outside wedlock with another woman before their marriage, when their families had fallen apart and she had been wed off to the Lancastrian Prince of Wales to seal the new allegiance between her father and his former foe, Lancastrian queen Margaret of Anjou.

The result is a delicate, beautifully written and historically plausible romance with particularly poignant scenes you will want to read over and over again before moving on to the historically unavoidable sad end. If some flaws must be found, the last part of Anne's life as queen is somewhat hurried away compared to the detailed description of her childhood friendship with Richard as duke of Gloucester that slowly blossoms into a mutual love and a happy and passionate marriage, and some scenes when she is already terminally ill are less plausible than the rest of the novel. Nevertheless, this book will stir you from inside and can be generally considered as one of the best achievements in the ever expanding Ricardian fiction novels that were produced since Paul Murray Kendall's bio of Richard III first published in 1955.

This is a historical novel based on the life of Anne Neville, wife to Britain's Richard III. Please note that it is a reprint of a novel originally published in 1978 as The White Queen.

I found this long book a very frustrating read, because Anne, the title character, developed neither a voice nor a spine at any point. She greeted everything with mute acquiescence and suffering, often nigh unto death, from which she would be rescued.

Even in climactic scenes, where one word from her would mean the difference between her dreams being realized, and all her hopes crushed -- she chooses not to speak that word, and in at least one of them, for no particular reason I can see.

Now, I understand the concept of learned helplessness. Still, 337 pages of small type is far too long to have to deal with a "heroine" whose preferred response to tragedy is to fall into a coma and almost die. Several times over.

And -- from some of the hints given, that's not fair to the historical Anne, who apparently competently managed large households, including palaces, extremely competently and smoothly ... yet we see her exclusively as a put-upon, suffering waif.

If you are a fan of novels written in and about the War of the Roses, you may want to read this. Personally, I found Anne as depicted here dismal and depressing, and even the love story could not overcome that.

I received this book via Rambles.net in exchange for doing an objective review of it.

This is a historical novel based on the life of Anne Neville, wife to Britain's Richard III. Please note that it is a reprint of a novel originally published in 1978 as The White Queen.

I found this long book a very frustrating read, because Anne, the title character, developed neither a voice nor a spine at any point. She greeted everything with mute acquiescence and suffering, often nigh unto death, from which she would be rescued.

Even in climactic scenes, where one word from her would mean the difference between her dreams being realized, and all her hopes crushed -- she chooses not to speak that word, and in at least one of them, for no particular reason I can see.

Now, I understand the concept of learned helplessness. Still, 337 pages of small type is far too long to have to deal with a "heroine" whose preferred response to tragedy is to fall into a coma and almost die. Several times over.

And -- from some of the hints given, that's not fair to the historical Anne, who apparently competently managed large households, including palaces, extremely competently and smoothly ... yet we see her exclusively as a put-upon, suffering waif.

If you are a fan of novels written in and about the War of the Roses, you may want to read this. Personally, I found Anne as depicted here dismal and depressing, and even the love story could not overcome that.

I received this book via Rambles.net in exchange for doing an objective review of it.

This is a historical novel based on the life of Anne Neville, wife to Britain's Richard III. Please note that it is a reprint of a novel originally published in 1978 as The White Queen.

I found this long book a very frustrating read, because Anne, the title character, developed neither a voice nor a spine at any point. She greeted everything with mute acquiescence and suffering, often nigh unto death, from which she would be rescued.

Even in climactic scenes, where one word from her would mean the difference between her dreams being realized, and all her hopes crushed -- she chooses not to speak that word, and in at least one of them, for no particular reason I can see.

Now, I understand the concept of learned helplessness. Still, 337 pages of small type is far too long to have to deal with a "heroine" whose preferred response to tragedy is to fall into a coma and almost die. Several times over.

And -- from some of the hints given, that's not fair to the historical Anne, who apparently competently managed large households, including palaces, extremely competently and smoothly ... yet we see her exclusively as a put-upon, suffering waif.

If you are a fan of novels written in and about the War of the Roses, you may want to read this. Personally, I found Anne as depicted here dismal and depressing, and even the love story could not overcome that.

I received this book via Rambles.net in exchange for doing an objective review of it.

This book was a fictionalized version of actual events that took place during the Wars of the Roses right before the Tudor reign. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Anne Neville and Richard III as depicted in this book and would recommend it to anybody who wants to learn more about this time in English history. Although quite long, It was well written and kept my interest throughout. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because the formatting was confusing in the Kindle version.

Finally!! A book mostly about Anne neville((: really goes in depth with her family and then richard111.
Also does not make Richard out to be any sort of bad person. You really felt, the love between the two of them.
I highly recommend it to Neville fans.