AUGUST 2017AWW.COM.AU 177
REVIEWS BY KATIE EKBERG.
Six Tudor Queens,
Anne Boleyn, A King’s
Obsessionby Alison Weir,
Hachette.
Divorced, beheaded, died;
divorced, beheaded, survived:
the wives of Henry VIII. This
is the second of Weir’s “six
volumes, six years” about the
first beheaded – Anne Boleyn- but what more is there to say?
Plenty. Anne leaves dreary
family seat Hever Castle with
feminist fire in her belly. Her
father has secured her a
position as one of 18 ladies-
in-waiting at the Netherlands
court of thoroughly modern
Margaret of Austria, her library
filled with women’s works.
Subsequent placing at the Paris
court of the King of France’s
liberated sister, Marguerite,
spurs delighted Anne further.
When elder sister and lady-in-
waiting Mary is raped by Henry
VIII, their father, Sir Thomas
Boleyn, receives a promotion
and observes “it did her no
harm”. Anne pales and relents
when obsessive Henry pursues
her, caught in malevolent
crossfire. Yet courageous Anne
still burns ambitiously. Weir
scatters a trail of naïve Anne’s
early carelessness, which leads
to accusations of adultery. It
took six years for law to allow
them to marry, three years
for the “King’s Obsession” to
mount the scaffold.
5 IRUHVW ¿FWLRQV WR FHOHEUDWHNATIONAL TREE DAY
- The Woodlandersby Thomas Hardy, 1887.
WHAT:Honest woodsman Giles Winterborne loses his childhood sweetheart,
Grace Melbury, to philandering handsome doctor Edgar Fitzpiers. Grace’s
socially-climbing father deemed it a better match, but Giles dies trying to
save her virtue and reputation.
WHY:Critics hailed this Hardy’s most noble novel – written at a time when he
was established enough to foray into subjects such as infidelity and immorality.
3.The Treesby Conrad Richter, 1940.
WHAT:The first in Richter’s Awakening Land series, solitary ”Woodsy” Luckett
andhis wild, woods-faring family lived an itinerant life, pushing westward as
the American frontier advances.
WHY:A well-researched depiction of the early roaming pioneers, who
risked life and limb trying to live in the vast hardwood forests of the Midwest.
Dangerous animals, severe weather, disease and war are the historic themes.- The Flame Trees of Thikaby Elspeth Huxley, 1959.
WHAT:Huxley’s memoir about her childhood in Kenya. Her eternally optimistic
parents are pioneer settlers living on a small farm and the six-year-old grows
up a wild-eyed European drinking in the beauty and danger of Africa.
WHY:Despite the slightly airbrushed romance of growing up with the Masai
andKikuyu, this is a compelling portrait of the clashing attitudes of colonial
life and a fun portrait of the jungle. - The Bone Treeby Greg Iles, 2015.
WHAT:Part two of an epic trilogy about Southern American lawyer Penn
Cage, fighting blood and race alongside reporter girlfriend Caitlin Masters.
Attacks by the Klan, police corruption andcivil rights murders lead Masters
to the Mississippi River backwaters and a secret killing ground, used by slave
owners and the Klan. A place known as “the bone tree”.
WHY:Proof that writers can, and must, keep alive shocking events in our history. - Mr Wiggby Inga Simpson, 2013.
WHAT:Widower Mr Wigg still misses Mrs Wigg terribly, a few years after
herpassing. Their farm in the stone-fruit capital of NSW is where Mr Wigg
tends his beloved orchard, a radio in his wheelbarrow for company.
WHY:Simpson’s observations of loneliness, and her abundant humour, brush
assweetly as the fruits – Mr Wigg singsClose to Youand muses that the apricots
remind him of Mrs Wigg’s bottom. “That was life, all those little moments.”
Where Hummingbirds Danceby Susi Prescott, Xoum.
The beautifully written, real-life story of a courageous teacher and
motherwho left her comfortable lifestyle to up sticks to the grinding
poverty of the Peruvian slums, to teach English to the indigenous
children of a remote mountain community. Susi and her husband
celebrated their mutual half-centuries, preferring donations to the
Fred Hollows Foundation rather than gifts: this is who this woman is.
Two years later, children grown up, the couple separated and Susi
set off. At 60 she celebrated six years in the city of Arequipa, Peru,
working at an English language institute while volunteer teaching at
the impoverished primary school at the foot of the Andes. Untold joy
and the stark realities of travelling dart through the pages. But, “my
right place on earth,” shines through in the eyes of the schoolkids.