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Jilly_in_VA

(12,594 posts)
14. It's not fiction, but reads like it
Sun Jul 27, 2025, 02:33 PM
Jul 27

and it's hella long. The Plantaganets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England by Dan Jones. I've been reading for a week, and I'm only up to King John who is about to get the Magna Carta thrown at him. Jones makes these assorted folks come alive as most historians don't. He admires Henry II, who he describes as "short, redheaded, thick-chested, with a tendency to fat", and Eleanor of Aquitaine (as who wouldn't? She was a powerhouse in a time when women were only good for dynastic marriages and breeding) and he is kinder to Richard the Lionheart than most historians. King John, not so much. I believe this book ends with Richard II but there is a second volume planned. I think I will need some mindless fiction after this.

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