THE royal and the world of aristocrats somehow always manages to intrigue.
After all, we are talking about a (real) world very far from the everyday life of those who are not used to valets, butlers and bows.
This is why the four books to read of the week concern this universe. One is even written by Sarah Ferguson, or “Red Fergie”, the ex-wife of the disgraced Prince Andrew who has launched into the world of fiction.
Once again a book tries to shed light on the tragic death of Lady Diana who disappeared in a car accident under the Alma bridge in Paris on August 31, 1997.
1/ Books to read. A very intriguing lady
Why read it
Sarah, Duchess of York, born Sarah Margaret Ferguson and also known by the nickname Fergie, is the ex-wife of Prince Andrew.
Former sister-in-law of Princess Diana and King Charles III, after the royal parenthesis and several scandals, she has worked in a thousand different activities including the ambassador for Weight Watchers.
Benefactress, public speaker and film producer, she has taken up writing in recent years.
First fairy tales for children and then aristocratic love stories for adults. He started out with The compass of the heart and now come back with A Very Intriguing Lady.
This time the Duchess of York takes us to 1872 where Lady Mary Montagu Douglas Scott, the youngest daughter of Queen Victoria’s close friends, is outwardly the perfect gentlewoman, as well as being a keen observer and an exceedingly intelligent scholar.
Over the years he has deliberately created an image of himself that is easy to ignore and even more to underestimate, the perfect cover for investigating the most elegant mansions of high society…
2/ Books to read. Diana Spencer. Death, myth and mysteries
Why read it
A new essay on Princess Diana will be released on August 29, Diana Spencer. Death, myth and mysteries.
A non-random date: the “Princess of the People” – as will be remembered – died in a car accident in Paris on the night between 30 and 31 August 1997.
Author, journalist Annalisa Angelone. Rai journalist in Campania could not resist the temptation to dig once again into the history of the most photographed royal in history. In the books you make a lucid examination of Diana Spencer’s last summer and the contradictions that emerged from the investigations into her disappearance.
The starting point is her voice which gradually becomes more uncomfortable: the relationship with Dodi Fayed makes the Establishment shiver, the archbishop of Canterbury claims that he would not crown a divorced and remarried king and the world’s powerful fear her battle against mines, especially since she managed to get the support of President Clinton.
“I will name the names,” he announces. “I will name names”: who produces the mines, who sells them. And his next battles are already on the horizon, among the refugee camps. But the mine dossier he was working on disappeared with her on August 31, 1997.
Info. Annalisa Angelone. Diana Spencer. Death, myth and mysteries. Polydorus. 20 euro.
3/ Books to read. Isabella’s fate
Why read it
Isabella is in her early thirties, but she is already an undisputed leader. She is supported by a very firm faith, by hope in the Castilian people and by love for her family. Some of the greatest protagonists of the time confronted her and her choices.
Starting with Tomás de Torquemada, the first grand inquisitor and personal confessor of Isabella.
Up to Christopher Columbus who, after the refusal of John II of Portugal, proposed his project to the Spanish royal couple, obtaining funding for the discovery enterprise that changed history forever.
Isabella is a queen who has always been at the forefront of her country’s internal and foreign policy: from the war efforts for the Reconquista – the crusade aimed at driving the Moors out of Iberian soil – to the founding of the city of Santa Fé, the pearl of Andalusia, right during the siege of the last Saracen stronghold.
Isabella is a strong and shrewd woman, a courageous mother, and a valuable advisor. In this novel, which feeds on the very plot of European history in one of its crucial moments, we discover the years ranging from 1482 to the last days of the Queen and which continue the facts recounted in the first volume of the dilogy that began with Isabella.
A princess on the throne of Spain.
Info. Susan Hastings. Isabella’s fate. Piemme
3/ Books to read. The court seamstress
Why read it
London, 1609. Anne Turner is the wife of the doctor at the court of James I: an intelligent and talented woman with a passion for fabrics and textiles, she is also an expert in herbal remedies.
His is the invention of a precious yellow starch, skilfully obtained from saffron, thanks to which Anne makes elegant and unusually bold clothes.
Frances Howard, Countess of Essex, is young, beautiful and extremely unhappy: married to a violent man who blames her for not being able to give him an heir, she is closed in an angry isolation, which prevents her from fulfilling the social duties imposed by her status as a noblewoman.
When Anne is called to court to heal Frances’s back wounds caused by her husband’s whipping, a friendship is immediately born between the two that crosses the barriers of social rank.
Anne is asked to help Frances dress and behave like a countess: thanks to her advice, the young aristocrat becomes a symbol of elegance and audacity.
Frances, in turn, turns Anne’s life upside down, dragging her into a world of splendor that surpasses her imagination, but a court whose king, who has come from afar, is alien to his own subjects, where families of ancient lineage fight to obtain his favors and where everyone knows they can fall into disgrace any day now.
In this extravagant and ferocious environment, Anne and Frances dare to seek some happiness. But what began as a search for love and security leads to desperate acts that could prove fatal, in an unforgiving world of wanting to be masters of their own destiny.
Based on a true story, a scandal that shook the circle of James I, “The Court Dressmaker” is an immersion in the dark waters of English history of those years that celebrates the power of female friendship and solidarity.
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