Book Review: Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth I by Tracy Borman ****

Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I by Tracy Borman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I doubt that anyone could read of the execution of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII, without feeling sympathy for her two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, demoted in one fell swoop, as she herself noticed even at that young age, from Princess Elizabeth, heir to the English throne, to Lady Elizabeth, the king’s bastard daughter by a disgraced mother.

Often, books about Elizabeth gloss over the effect of this double loss on her, noting that she rarely spoke about her mother even after she ascended to the throne, briefly mentioning a ring she owned with portraits of herself and another woman who may have been Anne, or speculating that her mother’s fate might have contributed to her own antipathy toward marriage. In Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I, however, Tracy Borman digs more deeply into the relationship between the two (brief as it was in life) and Elizabeth’s later life to show that a strong influence did exist and that there is enough evidence to show that Elizabeth did indeed honor and revere her mother’s memory

While many hated and despised Anne Boleyn, few seem to have disputed her pride in her daughter, despite the disappointment (to her father, at least) of her gender, or her active involvement in Elizabeth’s early upbringing within the constraints of her position. (Queens did not nurse their own children, and royal offspring were given their own households early on.) Even as she faced death, one of her main concerns was for her daughter.

As Elizabeth grew up she no doubt heard little good about Anne from most people, but Borman believes that there is evidence that an alternative, positive view was also provided to her, most notably by her relatives on her mother’s side, including her beloved governess, Kat Ashley. When she became queen, she notably kept these relatives close to her and actively promoted many of them, as Borman documents, as well as pointing to the presence of her mother’s emblems (notably the falcon) in her palaces and portraits. Also, while she never, unlike her sister Mary, reinstated Anne’s marriage to her father by an act of Parliament, it appears to have been well known that praise of Anne’s virtues was a way to gain her favor. The psychological influences are also examined in some detail, from the effect on her refusal to marry (no doubt exacerbated by the execution of her father’s fifth wife, and Anne Boleyn’s first cousin, Katherine Howard, when Elizabeth was only 8, as well as the unhappy marriages of her sister Mary and their last stepmother, Katherine Parr) to her use of her charm on men as queen.

On the whole, even with my considerable (though not extensive) knowledge of the period, I found Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth I to be an informative and eye-opening look at the relationship between these two fascinating women.

I received a copy of Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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Book Review: My Friend Anne Frank: The Inspiring and Heartbreaking True Story of Best Friends Torn Apart and Reunited Against All Odds by Hannah Pick-Goslar *****

My Friend Anne Frank: The Inspiring and Heartbreaking True Story of Best Friends Torn Apart and Reunited Against All Odds by Hannah Pick-Goslar
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

On November 27, 1943, Anne Frank wrote of a waking nightmare featuring her friend Hannah (called Lies in the diary) in desperate straits. At the time, Hannah was at the transit camp of Westerbork, believing that the Frank family was safe in Switzerland. They would come into contact one more time at Belsen, shortly before Anne’s death of typhus only two weeks before the liberation of the camp. In My Friend Anne Frank, written with the assistance of Tel Aviv journalist Dina Kraft and completed after her death at 93, Hannah Pick-Goslar tells of their friendship and of her and her own family’s experiences during the war and afterward.

Originally thrown together as a result of their parents’ common background as German Jewish refugees in Amsterdam, Anne and Hannah quickly became firm friends despite the difference in their temperaments (Anne was outgoing, while Hannah was more shy and introverted) and the levels of their families’ religious observance. Together they lived through the German invasion of the Netherlands and the ever-tightening restrictions on Jews until the disappearance of the Franks into hiding, after which Hannah narrates her own experiences, including her final encounter with Anne, her reunion with other survivors including Otto Frank, and her subsequent immigration to Israel, where she became a children’s nurse and lived until her death in 2022.

Despite the title, My Friend Anne Frank, while it complements and adds context to Anne’s diary, is the story of a woman who was every bit as extraordinary in her own way, not least in her tireless efforts to keep the memory of the Holocaust, as well as that of her friend, alive.

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Book Review: The Spite House by Johnny Compton **** (rounded up from 3.5)

The Spite House by Johnny Compton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Eric Ross and his two daughters are on the road, living on the run for a mysterious reason that is not revealed until later, when he is offered a job that, if he can pull it off, will pay enough for them to abandon their peripatetic lifestyle and live a normal life. All that Eunice, the elderly woman who is the owner of the Masson House in Degener, Texas wants is documentation of supernatural activity. This is the intriguing premise of The Spite House. A “spite house,” for those who have never heard the term, is built solely to give grief or annoyance to someone else, whether by blocking the view, being an eyesore, or as a reminder of something the other person would prefer to forget. Its origins date back to the Civil War, when a terrible crime was committed that Eunice, the owner, feels spawned a curse on her and her family.

Eric, of course, knows nothing of the backstory, nor does he know that the previous investigators left as physical and emotional wrecks, but he accepts the job and moves in. There is a slow buildup of occurrences, but eventually, everything comes to a head in a shattering climax. While the book was what I believe is called a “slow burn,” the ending was sufficiently original, in my opinion, for me to round up my 3.5-star rating to 4. One of the only things that I wish had been, if not explained, at least explored more fully, is the unusual ability that the builder of the house and members of Eric’s family, including his younger daughter, shared, that probably contributed to his (relative) success in his task.

I also felt that the characters, including Eric and his daughters, Dessa and Stacey, as well as his employer and her staff members, were well-rounded and easy to identify with.

I received a copy of The Spite House from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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