A short post just to celebrate the fact that the blog has been going for one year. I’ve had a great time doing this, especially in the last few months, as people have started to post comments and to email me directly. Special thanks to those who have shared their thoughts on the Lymond Chronicles … Continue reading The Idle Woman’s 1st Birthday
★★★★★ The Lymond Chronicles: Book VI In the last half an hour, traversing the final few chapters of the book, my emotions have been masterfully manipulated. I’ve swerved from denial to triumph, followed by shocked immobility, and then a cool, tingling spread of realisation; finally, I have to admit, I actually cried (mainly with relief). … Continue reading Checkmate (1975): Dorothy Dunnett
★★★★ The Lymond Chronicles: Book V My head is spinning: I am now so close to the end of the series that I find myself galloping along, devouring the book whenever I have a few minutes. I’ve been reading at ramming speed – and I have such a compulsion to find out what happens that … Continue reading The Ringed Castle (1971): Dorothy Dunnett
★★★★★ The Lymond Chronicles: Book IV After my reservations about The Disorderly Knights, I felt some anxiety as I embarked on Pawn in Frankincense, the fourth book in the Lymond Chronicles. However, there is very little to find fault with here: it is a magnificent novel, richer and more powerful than any of its predecessors … Continue reading Pawn in Frankincense (1969): Dorothy Dunnett
★★★ The Lymond Chronicles: Book III And so, from the tumbling moors and hills of Scotland, and the stately, chivalric glitter of Blois, we come to Malta, to the sand and dust and bleached blue skies. This third volume in the Lymond Chronicles is a strange beast: after Queens’ Play, which I enjoyed immensely – with … Continue reading The Disorderly Knights (1966): Dorothy Dunnett
★★★★½ The Lymond Chronicles: Book II It is 1550, two years after the events in The Game of Kings. Mary of Guise plans a journey to France, to visit her eight-year-old daughter Mary, Queen of Scots, who is being brought up at Henri II’s court as the affianced bride of the Dauphin. The fate of … Continue reading Queens’ Play (1964): Dorothy Dunnett
★★★★ The Lymond Chronicles: Book I It is Scotland, in the 1540s. Edward VI is on the throne in England, the realm governed by his Protectors. In Edinburgh, Mary of Guise rules as regent for her infant daughter, later to become Mary Queen of Scots. The vultures, French and English, gather around the little queen, … Continue reading The Game of Kings (1961): Dorothy Dunnett
I’d never heard of Dorothy Dunnett until one afternoon when I was in the library, seeking out my next stash of books. Methodically going through the racks, I stumbled across The Spring of the Ram, the second book in her House of Niccolò series. Although I don’t like reading series out of order, the first … Continue reading In praise of Dorothy Dunnett
