Another book suggestion perhaps? This time on the theme of historical fiction and John Knox.
Roddy Martine wrote about the book for The Edinburgh Reporter :
“To countermand the groundswell of misinformation that has dogged Knox’s reputation since the Disruption of 1843, when the Kirk was rent asunder by the formation of the Free Kirk, Marie Gilroy Macpherson has in the first and second volumes of her brilliantly researched trilogy, turned to the women in Knox’s life: his godmother Elizabeth Hepburn, Prioress of St Mary’s Abbey in Haddington; his high minded mother-in-law, and his first wife Marjory Bowes.
“What emerges is that Knox’s admonition of the “Monstrous Regiment of Women” was, in truth, far from being a dislike of women, but a targeted response to the three matriarchal rulers of his generation – Scotland’s Queen Regent, Marie de Guise; Elizabeth I of England, and France’s Queen Catherine de Medici. Aside from this, as Marie reveals, John Knox rather liked women.
“Brought up in Musselburgh on the site of the Battle of Pinkie, and in sight of Fa-side Castle, Marie says that all of her life she has been haunted by tales and legends of the past. Although she has travelled widely, teaching languages and literature, across Europe, from Madrid to Moscow, she has never lost her passion foe the rich history and culture of her native Scotland.”
The Second Blast of the Trumpet – the second book in the Knox Trilogy. Marie Macpherson. Knox Robinson (London and New York). £20.00. ISBN976-1-906483-21-5.
This book was launched on 29 November at St Mary’s Kirk Haddington
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
