An elegant, clever novel.
It is usual to praise the authors of memoir for their honesty. Can a writer be too honest? There is no limit to the ingenuity of the catastrophising imagination. She brings insight and a rueful wit to her story. This talented and thoughtful young woman must be braver than she imagines, to step into the fiery circus where the modern writer performs her tricks.--Hilary Mantel
An intimate portrait of a Stuart princess whom history has occasionally underestimated. Limburg succeeds in humanizing Anne and bringing her worldview to vivid life.
It's impossible not to be moved. 'How shall I bear my life, Mrs. Freeman?' Anne cries at the novel's end. That we care about the answer is Limburg's gift to Anne, and a fine gift too.
Limburg goes full Hilary Mantel in burrowing deep into Anne's life and the politics of the Stuart court. Writing in short chapters interspersed with actual letters to, by, and about Lady Anne, Limburg proves adept at creating the inner life of an English queen who has been overlooked by history.
Limburg uses primary source material to great effect in unveiling the personality behind this queen whose name is associated with Britain's Augustan Age. Limburg's first novel will appeal to devotees of Stuart history and fans of Philippa Gregory.
Limburg attempts to tell Anne's story through a mix of fact--in the form of letters Anne herself wrote--and fiction, the author's own imaginings of Anne's everyday life, conversations and interactions. The result is the story of a life quite undervalued by those around her, a girl ignored and brought up to be less than her station, who relied on food and cards to comfort her.