Prequel: An American Fight Against Facism

A few months ago, I was in an online political discussion. Someone brought up how unified we were during WWII to which I said, "Except for those who used the black market, turned in neighbors, attacked those who didn't support the war..." It didn't go over well. I wonder whether that person has read Prequel? Based on Rachel Maddow's podcast Ultra, Prequel dives into the isolationist fascist movement of the 1930s which culminated in two failed trials. It's an important topic, but I'm not quite sure how I feel about the book. The first 2/3 introduced characters and threads which didn't completely come together in the trial-based final portion. Maddow has an engaging style, but Prequel didn't engage me as well as Bag Man did. Maybe the podcast was better.

The Last White Rose

 In her author's note, Alison Weir says historical records tell us what happened but don't show the conversations or personalities. Weir is both a biographer and novelist and The Last White Rose is the fiction companion to her biography of Elizabeth of York.

We first meet Elizabeth as a 5 year old feeing into sanctuary during the Wars of the Roses. Her father, Edward IV, eventually triumphs and she, her mother, two sisters, and the newborn heir return to their life of luxury. Bessy adores her splendid father, but as she approaches her tenses he sees him age prematurely. She also watches as relations with her favorite uncle, Richard of Gloucester, decline.

When she was 17, the family once gain returns to sanctuary. Edward IV is dead and Richard has taken Edward V hostage before usurping the throne and allegedly killing his two nephews. Bessy finds herself her family's backbone, caring for her sisters and trying to temper the conspiracy-tinged rants of her mother. Here, I think Weir could have shown a better transition from the calm regal queen to the paranoid captive. We don't see the Queen's point of view, so maybe she was a bit suspicious from the start but it's a bit jarring. During this captivity, Bessy still hopes to marry Henry Tudor but willingly accepts the advances of her uncle Richard whose queen is dying of tuberculosis. Simultaneously, she plots with Lord Stanley, Henry's stepfather, to help with Henry's invasion. Richard and Henry meet on Bosworth and Henry becomes Henry VII.

Henry's claim tot he throne was tenuous, but he won his crown on the battlefield so it shouldn't matter. Still, his marriage to the heir of the Yorkist King should, ,in the dowager queen's eyes, make them co-regnants. Henry disagrees and Bessy, more concerned with bearing and supervising the upbringing of their children, doesn't object. What does vex her is Henry's parsimony and (warranted) suspicions. He's challenged by two pretenders and a feeble minded cousin of Bessy's and she can't agree with his imprisonment of her feeble minded relative. She objects, but cannot act.

Still, their marriage is happy and Bessy loves her children...except, perhaps, Arthur. She regrets her inability to bond with him - when he was a premature infant, frail child, or a boy installed in a distant palace. She questions whether he's healthy enough to marry Catherine of Aragon, and henry admits that perhaps he two should live apart after consummating the marriage. That act, which years later led to the Great Matter, most likely never happened and Arthur dies of tuberculosis a few months later. And his mother mourns.

Arthur's death leaves the succession less secure. Elizabeth's prior pregnancy had been difficult, but she and Henry decide to have another child. in giving birth to her seventh child, a girl named Katherine who died soon after, Elizabeth sealed her fate. As she hemorrhages and dies, she sees the faces of her loved ones who died before her. Weir uses this trope in most of her novels and it's effective if wearing a bit thin. Other than that, The Last White Rose effectively fleshes out the frame of Elizabeth of York

Katherine Howard: The Tragic Story of Henry VIII's Fifth Queen

 Katherine Howard died before she left her teens and lived in an era where even important women left little record. She wasn't an intellectual like her cousin Anne Boleyn, her successor katherine Parr, or Henry's first wife Catherine of Aragon. She didn't bear an heir like Jane Seymour or gracefully give way like Anne of Cleaves. All she did was make the obese, failing, aging Henry feel y young and virile and then be executed for treason. 

Josephine Wilkinson provides a bit of background. Katherine's father was a bit of a ne'er do well (or failure) and when her mother died, Katherine was sent to live with relatives and generally neglected. She technically received a proper education in household management and embroidery and was literate, but was also left to the predation of older men.

Her descent from the Duke of Norfolk got her a position as a Maid of Honor to Anne of Cleaves. Her beauty attracted Henry's eye. He didn't know she'd ben molested - could her inability to conceive be due to damage or infection from one of her predators? (Personally, I think the problem was with Henry since Katherine Parr also didn't conceive during their marriage. By this point, Henry likely had type 2 diabetes and/or congestive heart failure, either of which would have impacted his fertility.)

Would producing a Duke of York have saved Katherine? Maybe, but her friendship with Thomas Culpepper (whether consummated or not) led court factions to inspect her earlier encounters. That would have cast doubt on the parentage of any child she bore. Katherine Howard was doomed from the start.

Mr. Churchill's Secretary

I love used books. Besides seeing how cover art and typefaces have changed over the years, they're a good way to find new authors and series. They're cheaper so I'm likely to take a chance, and sometimes I start a series that already has several installments. I took a chance on Susan Elia MacNeal and bought the first two books in her Maggie Hope series. The chance paid off - Mr. Churchill's Secretary was a fun, fast-paced read.

Mathematician Maggie Hope first traveled to London to sell her grandmother's house so she could pay her graduate tuition at MIT. Unfortunately, the house was a decaying Victorian pile so she stayed in London, fixing up the house and supporting herself through tutoring and renting rooms to friends. Once Britain entered WWII, she realized she wanted to stay. 

A few months into the war, Maggie's friend David calls her. David is an intelligence analyst (a job Maggie interviewed for but did not get because they hire men from the 'right' schools, not women with mathematical abilities). One of Churchill's typists has been murdered and they need a replacement. Maggie agrees to take the job and between taking dictation and typing speeches finds a hidden German code which links Maggie's story to the subplot involving a German sleeper agent who's in communication with a radical Irish separatist. These threads also connect to Maggie's search for information about her parents who died when she was a toddler. The last third of the book is a series of action scenes, revealed identities, and last minute rescues. While exciting, it did feel like the book could have ended multiple times. This, and the level of exposition needed to introduce a dozen characters (possibly necessary for a first book but still distracting) bring the book down a bit, but I enjoyed it and am looking forward to the next installment.