The fictionalised story of Mary Queen of Scots, this book follows her literally from birth to death. It gives a fascinating insight into this much maligned monarch and those who surrounded her; friends, lovers and enemies alike, and gives you a sense of the person behind the portrait.

This book basically sums up why I enjoy historical fiction based on the lives of real people. The intricate details included in this novel show just how thorough the author's research was, and the story is better than many straight biographies at imparting information about the events of her reign and life. In addition though, the characters are brought to life and given tangible traits, personalities and emotions, making them more real than any dry textbook could ever hope to. Even those characters who play only minor roles are well fleshed out. Likewise, the reader lives through the events with the characters, making them far easier to digest and understand. The thoughts and conversations may be the author's own creations, but everything feels completely plausible.

In this case, I learned a lot more about John Knox than I ever knew or understood before (and that's despite David Tennant playing him in the recent Mary Queen of Scots film!). I've always had a rough grasp on the sides of the English reformation and the split between Catholics and Protestants, but for some reason the Scottish equivalent has always felt more complex. So to see the firebrand brought to life, to read the words of his sermons and to get a feel for his particular brand of faith was very helpful. I can't say I liked him as a character, but I guess that was the point!

The book does a fantastic job at romanticising the relationship between Mary and her third husband, the Earl of Bothwell, which is traditionally understood to have been more of a forced union (in more ways than one). I have to admit, I did really enjoy this aspect of the story and, despite knowing what happens (to her at least), was hoping right to the end that they'd get to see eachother one last time, or at least exchange one last touchingly beautiful letter. I had no idea about his ending, and I'm definitely going to research the truth as I really hope there was some poetic licence taken in this version! Their relationship is beautifully built upon throughout the course of the book and it feels like a proper love story. It does certainly give the reader pause for thought as to what actually might have transpired between them and hope that she might have been allowed a little bit of happiness in her otherwise quite cruel life, but at the same time a small part of me does wonder whether it's right that a person generally considered to be a killer and a r*pist has been portrayed as a dashing, tragic, romantic hero. 

The biggest issue I have with this book is the pacing. While the story is continually moving forward, some parts fly by and others drag on and on and on. By about the mid way point, I was finding it hard to keep track of the ever expanding cast of characters and the nuances of the story, and only when we reached the events at Kirk O'Field could I finally confidently place myself in space and time for the rest of the novel. But then the long years spent in English captivity are dispensed with in the last quarter of the book, which seems ludicrous when you consider that she spent more time in captivity than she did in Scotland! I appreciate that captivity means limited things to describe, and the author has done a good job at keeping this section from descending into dullness, but the pacing and devices used to skip through time just don't quite chime with the rest of the book. 

This, combined with the sheer length, dampened my enthusiasm for the work as I progressed. I wanted to keep reading, but I wasn't drawn to pick the book back up and found it hard to muster any energy to keep plodding through.In this case , as much as I did like the book I just can't see myself rereading it.

Funnily enough, while I was reading this one I found a copy of the same author's book on Elizabeth I, so I'm quite interested to see whether she actually ties her two works together with shared scenes. Definitely want to read all of her other works too, but clearly she doesn't know how to write a short book! They're all huge!