Hilary Mantel
Unsolved Mystery of the Dauphin’s Private Parts
In the autumn of the year that the French Revolution broke out, Benjamin Franklin wrote that 'nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.' With forethought, he might have added 'and books about Marie Antoinette'. The French queen's place in history was already assured. ' Voila la victime', as Mirabeau said.
In her acknowledgements, Joan Haslip states that she hesitated when her publishers asked her to add another volume to the list. But biographers arc seldom bashful for long, and she was soon persuaded that 'in every generation there are certain characters which require a reassessment'. It is an extraordinary idea,
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'"The Last Colony" is, among other things, part of the campaign to shift the British position through political pressure. As with all good propaganda, Sands’s case is based in truth, if not the whole of it.'
https://literaryreview.co.uk/empire-strikes-back
'To her enemies she was the alien temptress who led Charles I away from the "true religion" of Protestantism and towards royal absolutism.'
Lucy Hughes-Hallett reviews @LeandadeLisle's 'colourful', 'persuasive' new biography of Henrietta Maria.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/royalist-generalissima
'Empathy is our moral portal gun, and it jams from underuse.'
Don Paterson on Portal 2, catching Covid on the Eurostar, and rereading Ian Hamilton’s 'Against Oblivion'.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/portal-agony