Sharon Penman

[Elly]

I`ve read all her books except the last one, hasn`t been released in Australia yet in paperback, would recommend everyone, she is really a great writer. They are all historical novels.


1. Here Be Dragons
2. Falls the Shadow
3. The Reckoning

Set in the 13th Century, Here Be Dragons is the story of King John and his England. A paradoxical man, he was charming, generous, clever -- and he was unstable and brutal. He was capable of great kindnesses, but he butchered child hostages. He was the youngest son and favorite of Henry Plantagenet, but he would betray his father in order to seize the throne of England. For centuries, history recorded him as a bad king, upon whom the Magna Carta was forced. Yet history also tells us he was intent on bringing a measure of justice to his realm in the face of his greedy barons' refusal to accept the law.

But Here Be Dragons is also the story of Llewelyn the Great of Wales. At 14, he began a civil war; by 21, he held all North Wales. He was John's vassal -- and most bitter enemy. His dream of a free and united Wales, unencumbered by English laws or lords, was to spur a lifelong crusade that left little time for peace or pleasure.

And, at its heart, Here Be Dragons is the story of Joanna: daughter to one, wife to the other. Bastard-born, hidden from her father until her embittered mother's death, then brought, a bewildered five-year-old, to John's court. He would cherish her, cosset her, and yet use her as a political pawn, marrying her off at fifteen to a wild Welsh prince She was terrified, but he was the father she adored and obeyed. Wife to Llewelyn, whom she came to love, daughter to John, whom she worshipped, Joanna was trapped in the crossfire of their implacable enmity. Here Be Dragons will not disappoint Sharon Penman's loyal following. Told with a richness of detail that brings the England, France, and Wales of the thirteenth century fully to life, Here Be Dragons combines high drama, romance, adventure, and authentic historical fact. It makes for an engrossing, entertaining, and just plain wonderful read.

Original hardcover release: August 1985
Holt, Rinehart & Winston
ISBN: 0-03-062733-7
Now available as a Ballantine quality
www.sharonkaypenman.com/herebedragons.htm

[Elly]

The Sunne in Splendour

The Sunne in Splendour reverberates with the sound of truth as it re-creates the life of this most complex and compelling man. Born into an England awash with intrigue and war, Richard was eight when his father was ambushed and slain, eighteen when he first blooded himself in combat. His times were torn by shifting alliances that made treachery and danger a part of life. Yet through it all, Richard remained firm in his abiding devotion to those he loved. It was his strength. And his undoing.

Caught in that vicious power struggle history has called The Wars of the Roses, Richard was raised in the shadow of his resplendent brother Edward. At nineteen and against all odds, Edward defeated the Lancastrian forces and claimed the throne for York. Headstrong, charming, and regally handsome, Edward was as famous for his sensual appetites as for his unfailing preference for the expedient over the correct. Despairing of his brother's follies, Richard nonetheless served him faithfully: through battle and exile, in war and in peace, despite the scandal of Edward's Court and the malice of his Queen. And he was rewarded with honors and lands, with titles and royal commissions, with, above all, affection and trust. Only one thing did Edward deny his favorite brother: the right to wed the woman he adored.

Anne Neville had fallen in love with Richard when they were both mere children. And he returned her love with an all-consuming passion that was to last a lifetime, enduring forced separation, a brutal marriage, and murderous loss. She was the daughter of his father's closest ally who was now his brother's worst enemy and she became an innocent pawn in a deadly game of power politics. That game was to inflict wounds of the soul that only Richard's patient tenderness could heal. The Sunne in Splendour is the story of Richard's fight to win her and to heal her.

Five hundred years after he died on the field of battle, Richard is still a figure of controversy and his story still fascinates and casts a spell. Betrayed in life by his allies, Richard was betrayed in death by history. Leaving no heir, his reputation was like his corps: left to his enemies, mutilated beyond recognition.

Filled with the sights and sounds of battle, the customs and lore of daily life, the rigors and risks of Court politics, the passions and infidelities of the high born, and the touching concerns of very real men and women, The Sunne in Splendour brings to life this gifted man whose greatest sin, perhaps, was that he held principles too firm for the times he lived in and loved too deeply to survive love's loss.

Copyright ©1998-2004 Sharon Kay Penman
Designed by FSB Associates

[Elly]

1. When Christ and His Saints Slept
2. Time and Chance

In When Christ and His Saints Slept, the newest addition to her highly acclaimed novels of the middle ages, and the first of a trilogy that will tell the story of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, master storyteller and historian Sharon Kay Penman illuminates one of the less-known but fascinating periods of English history. It begins with the death of King Henry I, son of William the Conqueror and father of Maude, his only living legitimate offspring.

Penman portrays Maude as a strong-willed woman, fearless, incapable of obeisance, determined to wield sovereign power at a time when the primary function of women of royalty, no matter how intelligent or capable, was as dynastic pawns. Having endured two forced marriages, she was intent on seizing control of her destiny and of the crown she claimed was hers by birthright. Still, she was thwarted, not only by men lusting for power but by men fearful of the power of women.

Each side had its brief triumphs, its calamitous losses, its betrayals by seemingly loyal followers. But the greater betrayal was of the country itself, as warring armies cut bloody swaths the length and breadth of England and as first one side and then the other seized advantage, while the people themselves were held hostage, caring little who should wear the crown, yearning only for peace.

Maude and Stephen took center stage during these tumultuous years, but the supporting cast was an equally demanding and often dangerous lot: Geoffrey of Anjou, Maude's despised second husband, unfaithful and unpredictable; the hot-headed Earl of Chester, who swung like a weathercock in a high wind; Stephen's brother Henry, Bishop of Winchester, a power broker for both sides and trusted by neither. Of all the high-stakes players, only Robert of Gloucester, Maude's bastard half-brother, emerged with his honor intact and was, perhaps, the only one among them who might have been worthy of the crown.

And then there was Henry, Maude's son and heir. As Stephen and Maude battled each other to a war-weary draw, it was Henry who became the ultimate victor. Intelligent, energetic, groomed from birth for kingship, he wanted two things above all else: the English crown and Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife of Louis, the French king. And indeed, he won both.

When Christ and His Saints Slept is a meticulously observed chronicle of a period thought of as primitive and barbaric. And yet, in the author's carefully documented re-creation of life and death in the twelfth century -- towns in flames, encircled by enemy armies; innocent people being starved and battered into submission -- we might be reading about blighted arenas of our own time. With verve, intelligence, and high drama, Sharon Kay Penman has bridged a vital link between the centuries.

"The magnificent combination of history and humanity that Penman's readers have come to expect again animates her latest work."
--Publisher's Weekly

"Tirelessly researched...this sprawling historical

[Elly]

The Queen's Man
Cruel as the Grave
Dragon's Lair

A Medieval Mystery Trilogy

Eleanor of Aquitaine sits upon England's throne. At seventy, she has outlived the husband who once imprisoned her. But has she also outlived her much-loved eldest son, Richard Lionheart, England's king--missing these past two months? Only Eleanor's fierce will can keep her youngest son, John, from seizing the crown. Only a letter, spattered with the blood of a dying man murdered on the Winchester road, can tell her if Richard still lives.

"Energetic and adroitly plotted...Justin is so beguiling, and the action so lively and unpredictable, that readers will cheer Justin's return in further adventures." --Publisher's Weekly

these were more fictional than her other books, but enjoyed them.

[Elly]

Prince of Darkness

Haven`t read this one as yet.

Bowing to an urgent summons from his former lover, Justin de Quincy hastens to Paris only to find that the Lady Claudine was, in fact, acting on behalf of his nemesis Prince John. As the Queen's man, de Quincy has already encountered John's murderous side. But now John tells him of a document implicating him in a plot to kill his brother, King Richard. The document is a forgery, and, despite his hunger for the crown, John is innocent of the charge. Still, a brother who looked with amiable contempt at John's earlier intrigues would hardly risk regicide. John must find the forger and prove the document false before Richard hears of it, and he entreats Justin to help him.

It takes more than John's wily charms to persuade Justin: It is only when he realizes that the welfare of the woman he serves, Eleanor of Aquitaine, is also at risk that Justin concedes. It is a concession that will take him to a bloody chamber on Mont-Saint-Michel, to a stinking dungeon in Brittany, to a murderous encounter in a Paris cemetery, and, ultimately, to the unraveling of a conspiracy that might have changed the course of history.

March 2005
Putnam
ISBN: 0399152563
336 pages

[dreamy]

Thank you for this thread, Elly. I love Sharon K. Penman's books.
My favourite ones so far are the trilogy "Here be dragons/Falls the shadow/The Reckoning".
She is a great writer with a very unique style and a an outstanding talent to "give life" to historical persons and occurences. It's hard to describe her awesome way of writing, you really have to read some of her books and you will be addicted.
Besides of that she's a brillant historian, too.

Right now I'm reading "When Christ and his saints slept" and "Time and chance" and they are brillant, too!