The Girl in the Glass Tower - Elizabeth Fremantle

I’ve now read all of Elizabeth’s Fremantle’s books. That is until she publishes another. Then I will read that. She is one of those authors whose books I will buy on blind faith. In my opinion she is one of the best historical novelists out there. It’s possibly something to do with the fact that she writes about my favourite periods in history. More than that though she strikes a balance between producing an historical novel, resplendent with copious research and convincing detail, and a fiction featuring historical characters again, meticulously researched, but with a twist or a plot that seems to encompass contemporary themes and trends in fiction, psychological thrillers for example, women in society for another example but places those themes within an historic context. It’s very clever. 

I remember receiving a proof of Queen’s Gambit early in my reviewing “career”. And for the first time ever Catherine Parr came to life for me in a way that no author had attempted or achieved before. It was a wonderful experience. And that was what put this author firmly on my radar.

The Girl in the Glass Tower tells the story of Arbella Stuart, the great, great granddaughter of Henry VII and a niece of Mary, Queen of Scots. No, I’d not heard of her before either. But having read this book, now I will never forget her. I think that’s another thing Ms. Fremantle does. She takes a lesser-known figure from history and brings them to life. Not only that but when you finish the book you can’t leave the character. I go scuttling off googling everything I can find out about them wondering why I’ve never come across them before. 

The story is told from two perspectives, Arbella’s own and that of a court poet, Aemilia Lanyer, a poetess fallen from grace, who acquires some papers of Lady Arbella from a man charged with clearing her effects. Both women have their stories to tell. Arbella dominates, as the titular ‘girl’. With a tenuous claim to the throne her life is seldom her own. ‘Protected’ or imprisoned and manipulated she is victim to the politics and intrigues of the Elizabethan and Stuart courts but underneath all of that she strives to be her own person regardless of the restrictions imposed upon her gender by the male dominated ethos of the age. The two women are not so dissimilar despite their different backgrounds. Aemilia, or Ami’s story is told alongside Arbella’s and the part she plays unfolds alongside Arbella’s. It’s all tied up at the end with a satisfactory outcome. But that’s after we learn of Arbella. 

It’s a slow paced story that mirrors Arbella’s life which seems to be in some kind of limbo for much for the time as we all wait to see if Elizabeth I names Arbella as her successor or not. It’s no spoiler to say she doesn’t. Queen Arbella doesn’t ring any bells!? But as Arbella’s life becomes more exciting the pace of the narrative speeds up to a nail biting conclusion the details of which I refuse to divulge as that would be a spoiler. 

Chronologically this novel occurs before The Poison Bed. It’s my bad for reading out of order. It won’t happen again. 😉