The Queen's Fool

In her previous work, Gregory told the story of Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry Tudor, as seen through the eyes of her lesser-known sister, Mary. In this follow-up work, Gregory uses a completely fictional character, Hannah Green, to follow the reign of Queen Mary, the once-beloved daughter of Henry who was declared illegitimate and exiled before finally coming into her inheritance. Hannah, a young girl of 14, is the queen's "fool" because she has the gift of second sight. She came into royal service through Robert Dudley, a handsome, charismatic lord who promised her safety (Hannah and her Jewish father had fled from Spain after her mother was burned at the stake during the Spanish Inquisition). Hannah loves the Queen, but she is running from both her persecuted past as well as her uncertain future: she is betrothed to a young Jewish man, Daniel Carpenter, who she is presumed to marry at age 16. Outside of her own personal circumstances, Hannah becomes wrapped up in the antics of Princess Elizabeth, the radiant half-sister of Mary who also makes Hannah her confidante. Hannah's simple life as the queen's fool becomes dangerously complex, and her own future becomes intertwined with that of England.
Gregory has a clear talent for historical fiction, as she skillfully weaves interactions between actual and fictional characters. The reader is treated to many character transformations: Hannah, from a young girl in boy's clothing to a young woman; Mary, from a gentle princess to an unforgiving and broken Queen; Elizabeth, from a scared young woman to a future heir to the throne; and Dudley, from a young courier to one of the most powerful men in England. Although Hannah's story is not quite as dramatic as Mary Boleyn's and the ending of this book is not quite so climactic as in The Other Boleyn Girl, Gregory has written another well-researched and enjoyable novel about the Tudor era.

This is the first book I've read by Philippa Gregory. Considering I've been reading a lot of (easy) YA fantasy fiction lately, it did take me a little more time than usual to really get into it. But once I had... I thoroughly enjoyed it.
At school I hated history... my teachers made it incredibly boring when it should have been entertaining and fascinating. This book, however, enlightened me on the history behind Henry VIII's two daughters, Mary and Elizabeth - something I'd only ever known about through the movies featuring Cate Blanchett (both aptly entitled Elizabeth).
Although the story was about a young girl who worked in the royal court as a fool, I was intrigued by everything that surrounded her. She is an appealing, likable, character, flawed like most of us but well rounded. There was just a little gore and a small amount of fighting, but on the most part, The Queen's Fool was about love and family feuds.
I think Philippa Gregory has a rare talent for historical writing and this certainly won't be the last book of hers that I read. However, my next book is more likely to be something much more light hearted and easy before I tackle another one of hers!

I have only read four of Phillipa Gregory's books, and while this is not my personal favorite, it is a very interesting and entertaining read. While, many historical dramas tend to center around the lives of Courtesans and the people of royalty.There is none to my knowledge, has ever been told from the tale of a fool ( a court jester). I thought that this was very original, very in depth, and a very interesting read. I have discovered Philippa Gregory only very recently, but, she has become my favorite author as of late. She can bring to life the world of the past with a very realistic prose and her characters are always humanly flawed but loveable. This is the sympathetic story of a girl, torn between the fact that she has to hide her Jewish identity and pretending to be another religion, torn by the fact that she loves a member of a royal court but feels bound to honor her betrothment to the man that she is supposed to marry, torn between loyalty to her father and loyalty to the royal house, torn between the dutiful service to two enemy sisters that desire to be the Queen and she loves them both. Torn between who she is to spy for and where her loyalties must lay.

This is the coming of age story from someone that lives in an uncertain time, an uncertain world and how they try to fathom what is the right and wrong thing to do.

And what position does this heroine hold in the royal court? The role of the Fool, the role of the Court Jester.

Very absorbing and very unique,something that I think that no fan of historical drama should miss.

The Queen's Fool is very compelling because of the main character, Hannah Green. When someone has gone through so much and lost loved ones in such a violent manner, it would scar you and should teach someone like Hannah, to `duck and cover'. This wonderfully-crafted character overcomes many fears and does what she has to do to survive, regardless of her own, internal struggles. Hannah's goodness and her big heart endears her first to the young King Edward and then to Queen Mary. As the story unfolds and Hannah finds herself in Queen Mary's service, thanks to the cunning Robert Dudley, she does the best that she can with her limited courtly talents and skills. Her integrity helps her to navigate her way through the perfidious court life and the dangerous schemes which she becomes embroiled in.
The story is skilfully written to give us time with Hannah Green while still supplying us with a very generous helping of the royals; including Robert Dudley, Elizabeth and Queen Mary. There are some interesting plot twists and the characters are vividly drawn to sweep us back to the times when your choice of faith and your loyalties could mean your unimaginable success or your plunging ruin and a traitor's death.
I highly recommend this book!

(8 out of 10 Diamonds) - Thoroughly enjoyed it

© 2008-2009 Bobbie Crawford-McCoy (Book Reviews By Bobbie).
All rights reserved.

Philippa Gregory is great...and this book is no exception. Dismayed by the bad reviews, I read the next book-Virgin's Lover. These two books are very different, and you'll probably like one more than the other. Queen's Fool is more character-based on Hannah's life. There are about 100 pages solely devoted to Hannah without any court intrigue (which many people enjoyed in Other Boleyn's Girl/why they think its boring). There is also a lot about the battle of Calais, which may be boring to some (I liked it). The book consists of little snapshot incidents, like the Spanish king insulting the English, etc.

The Virgin's Lover, on the other hand, has a lot more court/romance than this book. It centers more around Elizabeth and her affair with Robert Dudley. To me, I got tired of hearing about them sneaking around-we got it the first 20 times, Philippa! That part was very similar to OBG. The Virgin's Lover also has more foreign policy/what to do in this war/secret plotting. The Queen's Fool is not all about the secret dealing-Hannah's only privy to what part she and her lord play in the deal, and what the public knows.

To the other reviewer who commented about Elizabeth at 14-I agree with you to some extent, but readers shouldn't be dismayed by it. The incident is only about the first three to five pages (really!). It's not a major point in a book of about 500 pages.

In short, do not pass over this book!! Even if only to read them in order, you'll enjoy this book!

I finished The Other Boleyn Girl last week and went right on to The Queen's Fool, and again, couldn't put the book down, finishing it in less than 48 hours. Like The Other Boleyn Girl, The Queen's Fool tells the story of great events in Tudor history--in this case, the great succession battles between the death of Henry's only son, Edward, through the final ascension of Elizabeth. The most surprising part of the book to me was the great sympathy I came to feel for Queen "Bloody" Mary, who came to the throne wanting to rule wisely and mercifully and who became a despised tyrant, burning Protestant heretics and executing anyone suspected of plotting against her. Gregory shows how Mary's circumstances lead her almost inevitably to the horrific outcomes, yet you feel sorry for her and repelled at the same time. And like Gregory's previous book, the great events are viewed through someone watching from the sidelines and caught up against their will--in this case, Hannah Green, a converso fleeing the Inquisition in Spain, whose gift of foretelling the future makes her Robert Dudley's servant and spy in two great royal households, while trying to make sense of her own life and hidden faith. I loved this book as much as The Other Boleyn Girl and recommend both highly, and can't wait to tackle more of Philippa Gregory's backlist.

I have just reread this book. Perhaps it was my youth, or relative ignorance of history at that time, but I cannot figure out why I was not as befuddled when I first read it as I am now. This book is completely illogical. An author may be forgiven for skewed character portrayals of historical figures (see The Other Boleyn Girl for more, though that was actually a good novel despite all that horrible caricature of Anne Boleyn.) But when these portrayals stretch credulity, when they all but fly in the face of history and common sense, and when the main fictional character's actions cease to make sense because of this, then something has gone horribly wrong and the book needs to be rewritten.

Our main character here is a fictional girl named Hannah Green, who has escaped Spain after the burning of her mother by the Spanish Inquisition. The Greens--their real name is Verde--are Jews, recently converted to Christianity, yet who still manage to secretly practice some Jewish tradition from time to time. She has a God-given Sight, and can predict the future. Soon she is discovered by Robert Dudley and begged as a holy fool to King Edward and then Queen Mary, whom history remembers as Bloody Mary for her burnings of heretics.

Not only does Hannah stay in Mary's service, but she absolutely ADORES the very queen who brings the Spanish Inquisition to England! This queen who would probably send Hannah to the stake in a heartbeat if she found she was a Jew is portrayed as a overall nice woman, who only has to sacrifice heretics to the fire once in a while to feed her fragile conscience. I found this appalling. You may portray Mary as a pitiable figure, and I do consent that her life was a hard one, but to say that Mary is a good person with a loving heart who has simply been wronged is completely ridiculous. No one else can take blame for those burnings but Mary and Hannah's love for her is totally unbelievable and unrealistic. Any self-respecting Jew (or indeed, any self-respecting person) would, if not hate her, have no respect for her. As another review said, she inherited the worst traits from both her parents. She has all Katherine of Aragon's weakness coupled with Henry's ruthlessness. I couldn't understand Hannah's feelings towards her. They made no sense.

This following passage is from page 322 of The Queen's Fool. It is characteristic of the portrayals in this novel. Will Somers is speaking of the queen's plan to burn the Bishops Cranmer, Latimer and Ridley, and is concerned that the queen's place in history will be ruled by this:

"History will remember nothing but that she was the queen who burned bishops...she will be despised and forgotten and they will remember--God knows who! Elizabeth! Mary Stuart!--some wanton girl instead of this true-hearted queen."

I say, if you're planning on burning bishops in the first place, you're not so true-hearted. And all the Elizabeth-bashing! It was just a little too much for Gregory to portray Elizabeth as a silly, selfish wanton, when she was a much better queen than Mary in all respects. However, my problem is not that I disagree with Gregory's opinions on Mary and Elizabeth, because that shouldn't be a factor, but that it makes no sense for Hannah to love Mary and sometimes scorn Elizabeth. This makes not only an unlikable, idiotic character out of Hannah, but a generally unrealistic book with flat characterization. With Gregory, it's largely hit and miss, and this was a miss. I would recommend anything else by her (with the exception of The Constant Princess) to anyone who likes fun, historical fiction, but this one's joining TCP and The Wise Woman in the "bad Gregory" bin.

This book is a big, scrumptious read for lovers of history and for lovers of the work of Philippa Gregory, who is queen of the stories of Tudor times. Hannah Green is a 14 year old Jewish girl who has escaped the fires of the Spanish inquisition with her father, to settle in London. Her mother was burned at the stake as a heretical Marrano, a Jewish convert to Catholicism. Father and daughter live in their place of business, a printing shop, with Hannah permanently dressed as a boy for the sake of safety. When the young King Edward dies, his throne is taken by his elder sister Mary, daughter of Henry V111 and Katherine of Aragon, and who is a fanatically devout Catholic who sets up the burning fields of Smithfield, to torture and burn alive, anyone who is declared to be not totally devoted to the cause of Catholicism. Hannah has the gift of "Sight" and is used by both Queen Mary and her sister, Princess Elizabeth, as a "Holy Fool", to foresee the future, but manages to tread a careful path between both of them. It's a big, informative book with fascinating glimpses into life at Court in treacherous times, as courtiers and citizens alike change their religions and allegiances to suit that of the reigning monarch. It's a wonderful read and one which ended too soon for my liking.

This is the first Philippa Gregory book I've read, and I really did enjoy reading it. It's very detailed, very dramatic, and regardless of other reviews that claim it to be slow, I didn't mind at all because I love reading all the details. There's a lot of accurate history in the book, which is a plus, and because of this book, my interest in this time period has definitely peaked, and after reading, I went back and did my own research.

There were a few things that bothered me intensely about the main character that made it hard for me to really like her. She kind of just went with the flow and liked everyone (Elizabeth/Mary/Dudley), which in those times, I don't think you could really play on everyone's side (and mean it- and not get caught and tried for treason). And her love interest. I really hoped she would've handled things differently. The ending was NOT satisfying for me. Which generally would bother me, but I was so caught up in most of the other elements of the book, and I guess I just realized that Hannah is Hannah, and I didn't really get attached to her in a way to care too much what happened to her either way.

Besides that, it makes for an interesting read, and I loved reading about the Mary/Elizabeth sides.

I've always been something of a history buff, and lately I've been on a history kick as far as my reading goes, both fiction and non-fiction.

This novel is about a young girl who has fled to England with her father from Spain, after her mother is burned by the Inquisition as a Jew. They are all members of the underground Jewish community during this time period, people who nominally converted to Christianity while struggling to hold true to their Jewish roots. Hannah, the main character, is doubly cursed (or perhaps blessed) by the Second Sight, and is brought to court by Lord Robert Dudley to serve as a second Fool for King Edward. She stays on with the court through the reign of Queen Mary.

There are a number of stories interwoven in this novel. It is both a coming-of-age tale and a tale of intrigue in the English court. The historical detail is quite good, and accurate as far as I know...a few of the character details of the historical figures are I'm sure fictionalized, as is the main character and her family, although the situation the family is in is realistic enough.

If you enjoy historical fiction, you'll enjoy this book. Gregory's writing style is engaging and smooth, and makes for fairly easy reading, suitable for airplane flights or relaxing before bed.

I like author Philippa Gregory. Her novels are part Historical Fiction and part a bodice- ripping romance nove. Fabio is never on the cover, but he's always there in spirit.

Gregory's novel "The Queen's Fool" is narrated through the fictional character, Hannah Green, a young girl from Spain who must hide her Jewish heritage or face persecution in England. Hannah has the gift of foreseeing the future and through a series of chance encounters, she becomes a fool in the tumultuous court of Queen Mary the first. Hannah is a young woman caught between her loyalties in the court and her family, specifically to her betrothed, Daniel.

Usually Gregory's novels are quick paced, beach type reads. They have enough weighty content to be taken seriously and enough pulp to be entertaining. Unfortunately, I found "The Queen's Fool" to be long and dull.

The biggest problem is the main character. Gregory has set up Hannah to be in the most precarious of positions and constantly in danger. She is a woman who must always hide her identity and to try to keep up with every shifting loyalties in the court. The book should have been suspenseful and exciting. It really contains enough intrigued and plotting to be an episode of "The Game of Thrones".

However, Hannah is a baffling and weak character. She is impossible to understand, because her decisions never add up. She is in love with multiple men, yet her desires are never fully realized. She waffles between fleeing to be with a man and returning to court, both as a companion to Queen Mary and to Princess Elizabeth, two sisters who are unsure of their loyalties to one another. Hannah isn't very rooted in her culture and then all of a sudden it's her key motivator. She wants to be independent of men, yet is constantly looking for their guidance and support. She flees from danger one moment and runs head-on into it the next.

Hannah doesn't add up. She's a waffler.

Watching Hannah's story unfold is like watching a Tug-Of-Rope competition where nobody is trying to pull hard. It's maddening.

As such, I never had a clear image of the character. Usually when I read a book, I have a strong idea of an actor who could play them in a movie version. I read the whole five-hundred pages of this book without a good idea of the main character.

I felt a huge disconnect from the entire story.

In addition, the book was very repetitive with regard to stating the themes and motivations. I felt beat over the head with certain ideas. It should have been more tightly edited to eliminate the repetition and speed up the pacing.

The themes and real life characters in "The Queens Fool" were interesting and worth exploring. I wish that Gregory had explored them with a stronger protagonist and better fictional story. She has definitely written better novels.

Please visit my blog for more reviews and musings!

While the spotlight of historical fiction has often shined on Queen Elizabeth I, only seldom has it shone on her older sister, the infamous Mary Tudor. In this fine work, Phillipa Gregory makes a sympathetic character out of the woman history has dubbed "Bloody Mary", and shows us the darker side of England's greatest queen, the beloved Elizabeth.
Hannah Green is a young girl when she first encounters the then Princess Elizabeth, who is at the time acting in an inappropriate fashion with her stepfather. This image haunts Hannah, who becomes "Fool" to the ill-fated King Edward, then his sister, Queen Mary, by virtue of her gift of Sight. A Jew masquerading as a Christian, Hannah quickly learns to adapt to the religious changes that accompany the change of monarch, and learns to love Mary, whom so many in history have hated. Still, she is drawn to the glittering Elizabeth as a moth to a flame.
As she matures, Hannah learns to appreciate her heritage, her family, and the love of a good man. Only in nearly losing all does she begin to appreciate the life she has.
An excellent read, I recommend it highly to all those interested in the concept of religious tolerance, English history and the Tudor family.

Phillipa Gregory is an amazing author! I have truly loved every book that I have picked up from her. Her stories are so much fun and interesting to read; and The Queen's Fool is no different!

Although this book is a little darker, not as saucy as The Other Boleyn Girl or The Boleyn Inheritance, it is just as entertaining and still a page-turner. The story takes place after Henry VIII dies and discusses his successors (his three children: Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth) rise to power. When young King Edward passes away, it is Mary who has a rightful place on the throne. However, because of her religious beliefs and who her mother was, middle-aged Mary does not have an easy time stepping into her rightful place. Half of the country wants Mary, the other half wants Elizabeth who is definitely her mother's daughter (Anne Boleyn...) You will feel like a ping-pong ball in terms of whose side your on, Queen Mary or Princess Elizabeth!

Our main character, a.k.a.-The Queen's Fool, is a both intriguing with dangerous secrets of her own and very loveable to boot. She accidentally gets caught in the middle of the secrets and plots between Mary and Elizabeth and not only does she have to do her duty as a paid member of the royal court, she has to watch her step so as not to get sent to the Tower! There are so many surprises and twists scattered throughout the book that it makes it a relatively speedy read.

This was a great book and I definitely recommend picking it up for your summer collection!

This is another book by Philippa Gregory that occurs in the Tudor era. I won't really explan the plot because other reviewers already have quite well. I will just add my ten cents.
I have always sympathized with Mary I because of how maligned she is. She had a horrible childhood. Raised believing that she would be Queen of England, then a little baby, Elizabeth takes her place. She is bastardized, disgraced and motherless by the end of Anne Boleyn's queenship. Everyone always just assumes that she was a cruel person because of how many people she burned. In this book, Mary is given a sympathetic look as well. She is kind and Hannah is devoted to her. She loves her husband, but her younger, beautiful sister takes all of his love.

Lots of books show Elizabeth as a virgin. I have always wondered, what if she weren't? What if she were just not able to conceive? In this wonderful novel, the first chapter shows Elizabeth panting with lust and desire for Thomas Seymour. Elizabeth liked other women's husbands, and she didn't mind becoming Mary's husband's mistress. I think that Elizabeth liked feeling more desirable than other women. Being a wife just wasn't for her. Though Elizabeth does seem likeable in this book, Philippa Gregory makes her seem very much like Anne Boleyn in "The Other Boleyn Girl."

This is a very good novel. I was fixated by it and couldn't stop reading. The author is very good at depicting rivalry between sisters. I hope that Philippa Gregory writes many more Tudor novels. Are there any more sisters to be rivals? It doesn't matter. Any book by the author in the Tudor era would be excellent. "The Other Boleyn Girl," was fabulous. I reread it over and over. When I buy "The Queen's Fool," I plan to do the same. Good job, Philippa Gregory!

The Queen's Fool leads the reader deep into the heart of the Tudor Royal Courts. While most books featuring adolescent protagonists generally fail to capture my interest, this one is different. Hannah is a child forced to become a woman too quickly, which probably happened almost always in times as crushingly brutal as the middle ages. Both commoners and royalty are portrayed in this book as all too human, caught up in the sweep of politics and intrigue. Hannah does behave foolishly and impetuously, but then she is merely a young girl living in fear and struggling to survive in what amounts to a pit of vipers. I found her story compelling and sympathetic, losing myself in her world every time I picked the book up. Philippa Gregory is a master at portraying the dark side of the human personality, especially in women. Her Bloody Mary is neither good nor evil, simply a woman deprived of love and clinging to her religion in desperation. Her Elizabeth I is calculating and intelligent, willing to do what is necessary to become queen, as all politicans and persons of power must do. The Queen's Fool, while not perfect, is worthy of attention.

"The Queen's Fool : A Novel" is my second Phillipa Gregory novel, the first being "The Other Boleyn Girl: A Novel," and while I enjoyed this book, I found it lacking, compared to her other royal book. Detailing the children of Mary and Anne, we find ourselves learning about the tragic and risqué lives of Queen Mary and Princess Elizabeth, through the eyes of Hannah, a Jewish girl who must put aside her faith on the outside, to live, and becomes the Fool of Queen Mary. I thought that Hannah's own life and tribulations took away from the story, and would better suit her own story, without the politics of the court. In "The Other Boleyn Girl: A Novel," there was passion, sensuality, risqué themes, and true torment, and even more defamation of characters. I felt this book lacked all of that. The 500 pages were drawn out, and could have been significantly reduced, if Gregory removed Hannah and her husband, Daniel's, quandaries. Nonetheless, this story was very interesting to read when it came to the matters of women in a marriage, etc. If you like this time in history, then this is good novel to read. I recommend.

From the opening line: "The girl, giggling and overexcited, was running in the sunlit garden . . ." I expected to be drawn into a charged and vivid account of Tudor times. I was not disappointed. As narrated by Hannah Green, a Jewish refugee fleeing the Inquisition who possesses second sight, I was drawn in by the colors and smells of the past, as Hannah becomes entangled with the Dudleys, the royal court, and the burning rivalry between the Tudor sisters, Mary and Elizabeth.

Unlike previous novels featuring Mary and Elizabeth, in this book Elizabeth comes across as a scheming, manipulative courtier, while Mary is depicted as a stubborn and misguided woman, who tries in vain to extricate England from Protestant wiles. This soft treatment of the woman known to history as "Bloody Mary" is rather refreshing, and propels the novel foreward. Likewise, Hannah's own religious and romantic struggles help to frame the larger story and provide some alternate perspective.

Overall, an excellent read. Undoubtedly, fans of Ms. Gregory's works will enjoy other historical novels I have reviewed, including "The Secret Lion" and "Queen of This Realm."

This is horrible, historically inaccurate reading with one dimensional, annoying, pathetic characters and whiny, dull, stupid and self-righteousness protagonist. Saint Mary Tudor? And BRAINLESS ELIZABETH ? Are you kidding ? I really have no words to describe how I despise this book and how big is injustice that Gregory did to real historical persons (and yes, in every her book).
Oh, and by the way Gregory's fiction is not good historical fiction, but a pure example of stereotypical thinking. Avoid her books like a plague.

EDIT. PS. I want to add this - SLUT SHAMING OF 14 YEAR OLD, INNOCENT GIRL IS UTTERLY DISGUSTING! Philippa Gregory is definitely not a feminist author.

Philippa Gregory weaves a very different tale with a completely fictional narrator, young Hannah Green. As other reviews have noted, Hannah and her father flee the Spanish Inquisition, and start a new life in London, where she is discovered as having the gift of "Sight" by none other than Robert Dudley, who presses her first into service for the young King, thus beginning of a life of courtly intrigue.

As always, Gregory writes compellingly and interestingly, and I kept turning the pages because I wanted to know how it would all turn out. I give this book four stars instead of five due to its abrupt ending and due to Hannah's ever-changing loyalties and attitudes. It was difficult to take her seriously when she pledged eternal devotion on one page and conveniently forgot it on the next. This was a very interesting take on Queen Mary, however, giving her far more sympathy than I was expecting to see. It is easier to understand how she was conflicted by her duties to her God and to her Country, as heinous and inexcusable as her policies happened to be.

After reading quite a few Philippa Gregory novels, enjoying most of them thoroughly, I recently picked this one up. The overview sounded a bit strange, and quite a stretch for the imagination...but what a surprise! I loved it. The only questionable part was how "Bloody Mary" was portrayed as a lovelorn, sympathetic character (all the while burning heretics at the stake). And even after Hannah is arrested by Mary's own henchmen and only just misses being killed herself, Hannah returns to her service and continues being devoted and caring towards her!! That part just made no sense. But apart from that it was interesting, and well written, and very entertaining! Plus Hannah's romance added more depth and charm to the overall story.

This historical fiction was another great Tudor novel of Philippa Gregory. It takes place in 1553 with Queen Mary I in power. She has married King Phillip of Spain, but he has eyes for her half sister, Elizabeth. Earl Robert Dudley is also entranced by Elizabeth, who is the daughter of Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. The story centers around a ficticious character, Hannah Greene. Hannah has been on the run with her father as Jewish refuges from Spain during the Inquisition. They run a book store, selling religious and forbidden books, not allowed by the very devout Catholic Queen Mary. It is an interesting perspective, having the story told through Hannah's eyes. Hannah has allegiances to both Queen Mary and Princess Elizabeth. This is an interesting and fast-paced read.

This was my first foray into the world of Philippa Gregory. I purchased this book primarily because I was going to be flying for 5 hours and thought this 500 page book would keep my mind occupied for a while.

In general I enjoyed a great deal of the book. However, this could easily have been shortened by about 100 to 150 pages. There was a huge amount of repetitiveness in this book. As I read, I found conversations that had taken place pages ago were now being repeated. Certainly this book could have been edited better, but judging by the length of other Gregory books (which I've avoided in the past) this seems to be her writing style.

I did like the character of Hannah very much, although her's is a completely implausible storyline. But I did find myself rooting for her and was pleased with the ending.

I'm giving the book a 4 star rating, but it's really a 3 1/2 star book for me. I'm not sure If I should venture into reading any other books by Gregory, at least not for a while.

After reading and seeing so many renditions of the story of Mary and Elizabeth, I must admit it was quite refreshing to see Mary portrayed as a warm, caring character only trying to end war and destruction and Elizabeth as a scheming, cunning woman intent on securing her power. Gregory tells the tale of these two sisters through the character of Hannah Green, an interesting and dynamic character herself, who becomes unwillingly involved in both of the women's lives. Over the course of the novel, the reader comes to understand better Mary's plight and stubborness of her religion and her increasing suspicions of those around her. It is no wonder at the end of her life she was so bitter and resentful towards her sister, Elizabeth. Elizabeth too is portrayed with character flaws and weaknesses, especially her chronic illness. Gregory does a fantastic job in bringing these legendary historical figures to life admist the rebellion of 17th century England and through the main character of Hannah Green.

Wonderful historical fiction. Highly Recommended.

I gave the first book of the trilogy 5 stars, I loved this book also but found the character of Hannah being a 14 yr old Jewish girl pretending to be a boy and a Catholic as well while using her gift of sight to be put in the position of Queen's Holy Fool and spy between 2 sisters, while each of them knew it and she still manages to keep both their favor (and her head) to be a bit of a stretch. I think it dubious that she had any gift of "sight" but rather was just innocent and likable enough to get away with it. In the end she reunites with her beloved after mothering his son born "from the wrong side of the bed". Isn't it convenient that his real mother took the sword while handing him over to Hannah with no one to morn her loss? Gregory does a wonderful job of portraying the Tudor Court. It is a fasinating and very well researched piece of historical fiction. Getting a history lesson while being enlightened and entertained, it doesn't get any better than that. I can't wait to read the next in the series "The Virgin's Lover".

This was a vastly superior book to "The Other Boleyn Girl", not to mention the abomination that is "The Virgin's Lover." Philippa Gregory's novels are either well-written, or just plain terrible. In this case, it's the former.

Some have criticized this novel as overly sympathetic to Mary, and I'll admit that her capabilities as a queen may have been exaggerated here. However, it is still a refreshing departure from the monstrous and inaccurate image of Mary as a cruel and ruthless tyrant popularized after her death, an image adopted by many other books in this genre (and even to some extent in the absolutely marvelous novel, "Legacy," by Susan Kay).

I did not particularly mind the protagonist, Hannah, as my main focus was upon the actual historical figures she encountered. Mostly I overlooked her, and I've already forgotten much about her character. Gregory has a tendency to focus upon one single, innocuous sideline figure (ala Mary Boleyn), and portray them as an innocent witness to the people and events around them. Because "The Queen's Fool" was my first Gregory novel, I was not yet irritated by the generic protagonist of it, and I found her own plot mildly interesting... And having read the abominable "Virgin's Lover", perhaps it's best that she go back to her reliance upon that stock character.

Anyway, well-written, a fresh portrayal of Mary, a far superior portrayal of Elizabeth compared to "The Virgin's Lover" (yes, I know that's not saying much), this book was a largely entertaining read.

But for those of you who dislike the portrayal of Elizabeth, I'd like to suggest "Legacy" by Susan Kay. I've read as many books on Elizabeth as I could get my hands on ("Virgin", "Virgin's Lover", "I, Elizabeth", Irwin's trilogy, "The Tower and the Dream", and "The Tudor Wench"). Kay's story is not only a fantastic work of historical fiction, it's an utterly captivating novel.

Personally, I think the people comparing this negatively with "The Other Boleyn Girl" probably read TOBG first. The first time you encounter the heroine, Mary/Hannah, I suppose you appreciate her the most.

Reading over this review, I realized it was largely negative in tone. I just want to state for the record that I really did enjoy this book, and this enjoyment can be seen in the fact that I subsequently purchased her others. I would recommend this book to others.

Her best by far, though, is "Earthly Joys."

Another great work of historical fiction from Gregory.

This book focuses on the reign of Mary Tudor, the daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon (Henry's first wife). The story is told from the viewpoint of a young female servant, who gets drawn into the court and the politics and plots that surround it.

I have read other books set in this time period in England, and Gregory managed to tell the story in a way that was fresh and entertaining.

If you are interested in the period, or a fan of Gregory's you'll enjoy this one. If you want to read her books in historical order, here it is:

1. The Constant Princess (Katherine of Aragon)

2. The Other Boleyn Girl (Anne Boleyn)

3. The Boleyn Inheritance (Anne of Cleves and Katherine Howard)

4. The Queen's Fool (Mary Tudor and Elizabeth I)

5. The Virgin's Lover (Elizabeth I)

6. The Other Queen (Mary Queen of Scots)

Love and betrayal follow this book into one of the most dazzling, dangerous, and chaotic courts of Europe in the 1500's: the Tudor court of England. We follow Hannah Green, a young Spanish girl who is Jewish but pretending to be Christian, to the side of young King Edward, Queen Mary, and ultimately Elizabeth.
Hannah Verde (or Green) has fled the Inquisition with her father because her mother was unfortunate enough to be burned at the stake. But, nothing has prepared Hannah for the life that she will lead in England. From the moment she lays eyes on Robert Dudley (son of the most powerful man in England,) she is smitten. Hannah is no ordinary girl though, and this is the most interesting part of the author's writing style. All of the historical facts given to tell the story are told through Hannah's gift, the Sight. This is the gift that gives the remarkable ability to be able to see into the future, and all of her predictions do come to pass. This is what catches the eye of young Lord Robert and brings her to court. She had seen an angel behind him and from here on she would become a fool to the young king, and later on become a priceless companion and holy seer to the Queen Mary, and dear friend to Queen Elizabeth.
Although the book is fictional many of the events that go on throughout the story really did occur. I loved the author's poetic way of expressing Hannah's feelings while combining them with historical accuracy all in one. One of my favorite visions that Hannah had was when she predicts the fate of both Mary and her sister Elizabeth. The words that the author uses while the Sight speaks through Hannah are both vivid and touching.
The main character Hannah is extremely complex which is what I love about this book. She is torn between love and loyalty. She is in love with Robert Dudley, she loves and is loyal to the queen, and like everyone else, she is drawn to the Princess Elizabeth. One of the interesting things about this book though, is that Mary was made to look like a martyr and a completely misunderstood woman, whereas Elizabeth is shown for cruel and selfish side and ambition that got her to the throne.
Another excellent quality of this book is that it shows what went on during the reigns of Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth outside of court life. In fact, we even learn of life in Calais, a city in Europe owned by the English. Besides having a life at court, Hannah is also betrothed to young man called David whom she loves dearly. He is pressing her to leave court because the Inquisition is now in Catholic England, and they are both Jewish. But once again, although Hannah loves Daniel a lot, she loves the Queen Mary and is very loyal to her, so she cannot leave her.
Hannah does end up having to leave to Calais, but soon returns to England and her dear Queen Mary. This was the rather exciting part of the novel and it takes place in Calais. It is here that we witness the war that Phillip of Spain dragged England into and drained her treasury with. It was rather fascinating seeing as how Philippa Gregory is very vivid and descriptive with her words.
This book was very enjoyable to read and rather touching. It had something for everyone. It is highly recommended for those interested in the Tudor Era or the lives of English people in the 1500's. Philippa Gregory is an excellent author and I highly recommend any of her books, and especially this one.

With just a little too much romance to be historical novels and far too much history to be romance novels, Philippa Gregory defies categories in her two immensely readable and wonderfully informative stories of 16th century England: "The Other Boleyn Girl" and "The Queen's Fool." That she is able to saturate her novels with history is less surprising when one realizes that she has a history degree from the University of Sussex and a PhD in eighteenth-century literature from the University of Edinburgh, but that she is able to bring history to life with such apparent ease and without breaking the rhythm of her narrative is most impressive.
Mary Boleyn, Anne's sister, narrates the first, chronologically, of these two books: "The Other Boleyn Girl." She is Henry VIII's mistress and bears him two children before her more famous sister, Anne, usurps her place. Historically, that is fact, at least the first part is. Whether Anne actually connived to unseat her sister is less clear, though Gregory certainly gives a convincing case of "what-if?" Beginning with Henry's attentions to Mary, the story continues through a rumble of bedding, wedding, and ultimately Anne's beheading. Along the way Gregory paints a picture of a court in which everyone must look over his shoulder constantly, marriages are made for convenience and political alliances, and men, whether father, brother or husband, control women and use them as pawns in a risky game of power. One sister resists, the other cooperates. From the beginning, Gregory paints a picture of sisterly rivalry weighed against sisterly love. Ultimately, sisterly love wins, though the rivalry proves Anne's undoing.
Gregory continues the two themes of sisterly love and rivalry and women obeying (or not obeying, as the case may be) men in "The Queen's Fool." With the rivalry, and sometimes love, between Henry's two daughters, Mary and Elizabeth as historical background, Gregory tells the story of Hannah Green, a Jewish refuge from the Spanish Inquisition who, after seeing her mother burned at the stake, flees with her father to England where he sets up shop as a bookseller. Hannah, who narrates the tale, has the gift of "sight", that is, she has visions that come unbidden and reveal the future to her. It is one of those visions that, early in the story, lands her in court during the short reign of Edward VI and, after his death, leaves her as a pawn batted back and forth between Mary and Elizabeth. Hannah has the ability to see the best in both and, as much as possible, is loyal to both, no mean feat given that each princess see herself as destined for the throne of England. To complicate matters, Hannah is betrothed to another Jewish refuge, who like her, must keep his ancestry a secret. She is torn between her desire for independence and her passion for her intended husband. How she eventually reconciles the two is the meat of the novel.
Gregory's narrative is engrossing, her conversations engaging. Among her previous fourteen books is a trilogy that includes "Wideacre", "The Favored Child" and "Meridon." Dare we hope that she will follow "The Other Boleyn Girl" and "The Queen's Fool" with a third partner, focusing on Elizabeth?

I was a big fan of Philippa Gregory after racing through "The Other Boleyn Girl," but here, without the anchor of a real-life main character, Gregory falters . Hannah Green is a secret Jew, who becomes the fool in the court of the Tudors during the 1550's. Hannah is loyal and loving to Queen Mary Todor, is equally fascinated by the vivacious Elizabeth, and has a special relationship with Robert Dudley, Elizabeth's lover. Much more clever people than Hannah become caught in the web of intrique that surrounded the successors to Hanry VIII, but Hannah seems to move effortlessly among the competing courts, shifting her loyalties as circumstances demanded. Several times she is caught in her own little betrayals of those she admires, but seems to be forgiven every time. Gregory is a good writer, and her details of life during this period fascinate, but I thought she strayed too far from reality in "The Queen's Fool."

Gregory is one of my favorite novelists. Her tale of secret Jewish life, as well as the life of English court during the time of Queen Mary, was very interesting. Her descripton of Mary, her half sister, Elizabeth, Lord Robert Dudley (Elizabeth's married lover), among others, was very plausible. I felt like I was there in the 16th century England! My heart skipped a beat when the heroine of the book, Hannah Green, was arrested for heresy. Hannah's fear of being burned alive, just like her mother, came through the pages. Was this book historically accurate? Who cares? This book is a novel and not a documentary! Maybe Gregory put too much sympathy on Bloody Mary (as Queen Mary became known historically), but this is Gregory's take on what made Mary act the way she did. Making history come alive can't be all that easy. Gregory does it with ease. I absolutely enjoyed reading this book!

If you are even remotely interested in historical fiction, this book is for you! I'd bet someone with ZERO interest would still be captivated.

A young Jewish girl, Hannah Green, forced to flee her native Spain due to her heritage, suffers from visions, and is taken into the royal court in England as a "Holy Fool" during the ill-fated reign of King Edward.

She comes of age at court, forced to hide her true faith during the swing from the Protestant religion of King Henry to the reinstatement of the Catholic faith under Queen Mary. Hannah is pulled into court plots and intruigue both at and against her will.

She learns to love deeply, both unconditionally and selflessly. In turn, the reader cannot help but fall madly in love with Hannah - her innocent, intelligent, and sweet manner. You can't help but be touched by her unfaltering devotion to her father, Queen Mary, Sir Robert Dudley and Princess Elizabeth, and eventually her husband Daniel.

Her loyalty to each is questioned at times, and seems unlikely given the warring factions, but Hannah teaches us that love is not mutually exclusive.

Beautifully written, intense and passionate. A permanent addition to my collection.

I have really become fond of Philippa Gregory. With Gregory, the reader can indulge a love of history, but still be entertained with a good story and interesting characters. The Queen's Fool is no exception.

Told from the vantage point of Hannah Verde, a clairvoyant, the reader experiences the death of Edward and the ascention of Mary Tudor. Hannah still has many of her own adventures outside of court life, but her connection with the ruling class is always at the forefront of this tale.

This book should be read after The Other Boleyn Girl, and it should be noted that it briefly overlaps The Virgin's Lover. I am really looking forward to Gregory's next work, The Boleyn Inheritance, because she will be examining Anne of Cleves and Katherine Howard. And, if you like Gregory, be sure to try Jean Plaidy, who also wrote about Henry VIII's wives.

Born in Kenya in 1954, Philippa Gregory moved to England with her family at the age of two and was educated in Bristol. Philippa now lives in the north of England with her husband and two children. She has written a number of highly acclaimed historical novels and her latest ones revolve around the rich tapestry provided by the Tudor period. I have not read all of the authors books but Earthly Joys and Virgin Earth were among the ones I have read and I found those two fascinating.

Hannah a young Jewish girl on the run from the Inquisition is sworn into the service of Robert Dudley. He sends her on a spying mission into the household of Mary Tudor, the forgotten heir to Edward's throne. Mary has a sister Elizabeth, sister who is waiting in the wings for any mistake. Far from being the bigot and religious fanatic the she has been proclaimed, Hannah finds that Mary is a gentle woman, waiting for her chance and only wanting the best for her subjects.

Philippa Gregory has come up trumps again with a book that takes the reader on a journey through the Tudor court with all its subterfuge and plotting and leaves the reader wishing that the book had not finished.

There is a lot I could pick on in this novel. The protagonist, Hannah Verde, is a suspiciously progressive-thinking young Jewish girl living in England to escape the Spanish Inquisition. Although her personality is wildly anachronistic for the time period, she's an engaging enough heroine. The plot depends on the contrivance that Hannah somehow becomes a close attendant to both Mary I and her half-sister the Lady Elizabeth. Despite knowing that Mary would have her burned at the stake if she knew of her religion, she is improbably devoted to her. And if this were not enough to stretch credibility, Hannah is also gifted with the supernatural gift of "the Sight." Yet despite all of this, The Queen's Fool is an entertaining page-turner of a historical romance/thriller.

Hannah is the eyes through which we see the rivalry between Mary I, gifted with the unfortunate name of "Bloody Mary" by posterity, and her sister the celebrated future Elizabeth I. The author is obviously biased in favor of Mary, which is not entirely unfair as Mary arguably possessed more personal virtues than Elizabeth. But the extent to which Elizabeth is vilified is ridiculous. The smear campaign begins when Hannah sees the fourteen-year old Elizabeth engaged in sexually-charged "games" with Sir Thomas Seymour, husband of her guardian Catherine Parr. It is stated several times throughout the book that Elizabeth somehow encouraged this behavior, and is later used as evidence that Elizabeth is a chronic home-wrecker who enjoys stealing other women's husbands. While it is true that Elizabeth enjoyed relationships with married men in her reign, most infamously Robert Dudley, I found the notion that at age fourteen she seduced the man who abused his position as her guardian and probably molested her rather offensive.

Apart from the less-than-ideal characterization of Elizabeth, the book is entertaining and compulsively readable. The better portrayals are actually of lesser-known historical figures, like the late King Henry VIII's jester Will Sommers and John Dee, mathematician and astrologer extraordinaire. Serious history this is not, but as a light bit of fluff with a backdrop of familiar Tudor characters it works well.

This novel set in 16th century England about a young Jewish girl who is snatched up from her normal life to become a fool for Queen Mary and consequently becomes intimately involved in all the intrigue surrounding this time period and especially the relationship between half-sisters "Bloody" Mary and Elizabeth I. All the characters are real except for the young girl and her family.

I loved this book because I had seen documentaries about Elizabeth and this time period before, but this book made it truly come alive and portrayed the complexities of both Mary and Elizabeth's personalities as well as the religious turmoil existing at this time in a very real way as Jews literally ran for their lives and everyone else constantly had to change their religion depending on who was on the throne. Kept me reading and sparked a renewed interest in learning about this time period.

I was just looking for some entertainment when I picked up this book. I'd read another book by Gregory, so I knew that I'd get what I was looking for. The storyline was interesting enough, but honestly, I was looking for more drama, sex and scandal. I did not find it within these pages. However, the story kept me engaged. I wasn't racing for the book whenever I got a spare moment; but it held my interest and I did'nt get caught up in what was fact and what was not. It is a fictitous story and I kept that in mind as I read.

What I most liked about it was the character of Queen Mary. I liked the way Philippa Gregory painted her. This story was just a bit more conservative than I expected from Gregory and showed me that she can write on a different level, which is a good thing.

After reading The Other Boleyn Girl, I became a huge fan of Philippa Gregory's. She is a talented writer who approaches historical stories from unusual points of view. As I've read more of her work, however, I've become increasingly frustrated with her loose interpretation of historical fiction. Occasionaly Gregory has been known to actually change history, or propose historical "what ifs" that are just preposterous.

That is not the case with The Queen's Fool. Here, Gregory lives up to The Other Boleyn Girl. The story is told from the point of view of Hannah Green, a Jewish girl who has fled the Inquisition in Spain with her father after her mother's death. They relocate to London during the reign of Edward VI. Hannah's rare ability, the Sight, is quickly noted by Sir Robert Dudley and his tutor, John Dee. Dudley, a calculating courtier, brings Hannah into his service. Gregory flawlessly weaves Hannah's story with that of the Tutor monarchs, while weaving in interesting historical stories such as the failed plot to put the Lady Jane Grey on the throne, the constant backstabbing of England's lesser royalty, Mary's marriage and false pregnancies, her persecution of Protestants, and the fall of Calais.

Gregory could not have picked a better point-of-view character. Hannah is very young at the beginning of the book, and her view of the people and events that surround her reflect that -- yet because of the fact that she is secretly a Jew, she easily observes that other people have hidden secrets as well. As Hannah matures throughout the book, so does her point-of-view.

The real genius of the story, however, is that Gregory chose to portray Mary as the good princess and Elizabeth as the bad princess. It was interesting to see the "human side" of Bloody Mary. Gregory made Mary's rationale for her actions believable without excusing her behavior. (She also did a nice job showing the limits on women's power at the time -- even the limits of the Queen's power because she was a woman). In making Elizabeth the bad princess, she flushed out theories that historians have had for centuries. While I think she went a bit overboard on Elizabeth's promiscuity, she did balance her character out enough that Elizabeth doesn't feel one-sided.

Overall, this is a fast read through a tumultuous time in history. It is definitely one of Gregory's better books.

I couldn't put this book down; it is incredible.

The story follows two fascinating lines of development; the turbulent times in England following the death of Henry VIII, and the growth and development of the heroine Hannah Verde, a young secretly Jewish girl who is endowed with the "sight."

The famous characters of the time are portrayed in unique ways through the perspective of Hannah - the devastatingly handsome and charming rake Robert Dudley, "Bloody Mary" Tudor, who is portrayed as a good, sympathetic character who becomes unhinged and does horrendous things due to her precarious position, the constant threats to her throne, her childhood suffering and her husband's conduct. (And in the end, her legacy is to have a nasty-tasting cocktail named after her!) Elizabeth is portrayed as a young character who is charming, intelligent, confident, something of a slut (Hannah sees her in a vision as "the virgin queen who is not a virgin"), flawed, frightened at times, and very clever. She is not as good a person as Mary, but her common sense sympathy with her people make her, in the end, a much better queen. Even minor characters such as Amy Dudley are well portrayed, as Hannah foresees a glimpse of her bitter end.

Hannah herself is fascinating. She begins as a young, uncertain, frightened child with horrible memories of her mother's death and a girlish crush on Dudley. The book shows how she grows and develops in the royal court, and keeps her innate goodness even as other characters crumble. Through the book she develops and matures, and in the end she triumphs: her rather obtuse betrothed learns that he must treat her with respect, and she turns down Robert Dudley's proposition in order to be a good wife.

This book is an exciting, unique, fresh look at history, and one of the best books I have read.

Gregory's second novel on the Tudor period in England is The Queen's Fool. The story is told from the point of view of Hannah Green, a fool in Edward VI and, later, Mary I's court. Hannah and her father are Jews who have fled the Inquisiton in Spain and she, dressed as a boy, takes refuge in England.

I did not like the fact that Gregory decided to give Hannah "the sight", or the power of forseeing the future. To me, it made a story where actual historical figures and events occurred, appear less credible. Also, the courtship of Hannah and Danny was somewhat uninteresting. Gregory should have just crafted a novel that basically dealt with both Edward's and Mary's accessions to the throne, as the parts dealing with them and, later, Elizabeth held the most appeal.

However, an okay novel. There are some pretty interesting parts despite a somewhat sappy ending.

Philippa Gregory (authour of "The Other Boleyn Girl") returns to turbulent Tudor England in her latest novel, "The Queen's Fool." This time, our narrator-guide is a young Jewish girl, Hannah Green, who together with her father, has fled Spain and the Inquisition, for England. Here, they have taken great pains to live quietly and to show that they are fervent Lutherans, all the while practicing their faith in secret. That is until a chance encounter with the mysterious John Dee changes the course of their lives forever.
Hannah and her father have opened a bookshop, where Hannah (unlike most girls of her age) has been working at dressed as a boy and acting as her father's apprentice. One day, however, young Robert Dudley and his tutor, John Dee, come to the shop; and in the course of things, discover that Hannah has the 'sight.' Suddenly Hannah's future changes dramatically: where marriage to a distant cousin seemed to have been her fate, she's now dragooned into the service of the Dudleys, who plan to use her 'sight' for their own means. And soon Hannah finds herself torn on all sides -- strangely drawn to her new master, Robert Dudley and yet missing her father dreadfully; and not wanting to be confined to playing the role of mere wife and mother, and yet not wanting to close the door on that option either. Hannah is confused and fearful about her future. But not even in her wildest dreams would she envision the part she would play in the fortunes of the Tudors...
I made the mistake of picking up this book just before going to sleep. Such was the sheer brilliance of "The Queens' Fool" that I had to finish the book in one sitting. What a compelling and engrossing read this novel proved to be! And what a heroine Gergory has created in Hannah! The authour did a fantastic job in 'fleshing out' the many sides of Hannha's character, thus making her both complex and sympathetic. Philippa Gregory also did a simply magnificent job of bringing to life the England of the mid 16th century with all it's brutality and turbulence, as well as it's vibrancy and colour. With exquistely drawn character, easy and swift pacing, and a wonderfully lyrical prose style, "The Queen's Fool" proved to both a joy and a pleasure to read. And whether or not you're a fan of historical novels, "The Queen's Fool" is a must read.

This book of Gregory's could be seen as a sequel to The Other Boleyn Girl, covering the time period after Henry VIII's death until Elizabeth's ascension to the throne. I like this book better that TOBG, because I am interested in the conversos of Spain and their journeys throughout Europe to find refuge. However, I fear that many of the fans of TOBG will not find this book as satisfying because Hannah Verde is not one of the "beautiful people" of court, even though as the Queen's fool, she is privy to an astonishing amount of information and action. Gregory again delivers a work in modern language about the sex, intrigue, and conflicting loyalties of the English court. A real page-turner, but serious history buffs probably need not bother, it would only frustrate them.

I was originally hooked on Gregory's The Other Boleyn Girl, which my mom and I stumbled upon in a bookstore years ago. Ever since reading Boleyn, I have been fascinated with the Tudor court. Gregory's concise yet extraordinarily detailed writing allowed me to see clearly the famous court of the Tudors. Her Tudor Court series has become a favorite of mine - I buy each and every book.

The Queen's Fool focuses upon the interactions between Mary I of England* and Elizabeth I* right before the Golden Age of Elizabeth's reign began. Caught in...
Read the rest of my review at [...]

Except for the prologue, the novel is written in the first person, from Hannah Green's point of view. Hannah and her father are living in England, having fled there after Hannah's mother was burned during the Spanish Inquisition. Hannah helps her father in his bookshop and is betrothed to Daniel, another Jew, whose family helped her and her father get to and settle in England. Hannah has the Sight - she can sometimes see the future. Robert Dudley finds out and gives Hannah and her father little choice about Hannah moving to Kind Edward's court to be the King's holy fool.

The novel follows Hannah as she spies for Robert Dudley and eventually Queen Mary. She becomes a close friend and confidant to Queen Mary, but she is also very drawn to Princess Elizabeth. We also observe how Hannah handles being in love with Dudley while betrothed to Daniel and how she deals with the fear of her faith being discovered after Queen Mary begins burning heretics.

I really enjoyed this book. Hannah has flaws, as any well-written character should, and she does and says some unlikeable and sometimes arrogant things. Overall, though, she is a sympathetic, likeable character, and she clearly grows from a young, somewhat arrogant teenager into a more mature woman. She is a very caring woman, who prefers to befriend Mary and Elizabeth, rather than spy on them. I would have liked for the Sight to have been a bigger part of the book. Although the topic is often brought up, in actuality Hannah has relatively few visions of the future.

I know little of the relationship between King Philip and Princess Elizabeth, so I can't speak to Philippa Gregory's portrayal of that aspect of the book. However, the rest of the history and the major players in the Tudor court described in the book are portrayed accurately. Some people may find Hannah too sympathetic to Queen Mary, given Mary's decreed burning of over 300 non-Catholics, but it's also clear that Hannah disapproves of this, and we are given reasons for her to be sympathetic to Mary. Personally, I found the portrayal of Elizabeth too harsh. Although Hannah is very drawn to Elizabeth's charisma, the future Queen generally comes across as considerably unlikeable.

My main problem with the book is that the author constantly used comma splices. This could be the author's style, or it may be more acceptable in British writing, but I found it very irritating. Fortunately, the story is otherwise well-written enough that I was often distracted from the improper (at least in the U.S.) grammar.

Set in 1553, Philippa Gregory's "The Queen's Fool" is the story of Hannah Verde. Hannah is a 14-year-old girl when her tale begins. having witnessed the burning death of her mother for their Jewish heritage, Hannah and her father flee Spain and finally settle in London. Hannah's father is a printer and she dresses in boy's clothing to work in his shop as his apprentice. But Hannah is soon embroiled in more court intrigue than she can handle. Hannah is a seer and is picked to be the Queen's holy fool. The new Queen, Mary, adores Hannah and Hannah is her faithful servant. But neither are free from the meddling of Mary's younger sister Elizabeth, Anne Boleyn's bastard daughter. Soon, both sisters are struggling for the same court and the same man - Prince Philip of Spain. Hannah is caught in the middle. To whom does she stay loyal and will that protect her from following her mother to the pyre?

I adore Philipa Gregory! Her work is so enthralling that it is painfully hard to put down. Gregory has such attention to detail that the story leaps off the page and encapsulates the reader. I highly recommend Philipa Gregory to any fan of historical fiction.

I'll be honest - I'm a "fool" for anything that has the words, Jew, Jewish, 16 century, Tudor, Queen Mary I, Queen Elizabeth I - and the description of this book had it ALL. Yay!; and in addition, I found it for a great price. Saddly, I recieved what I payed for. It seemed like Ms. Gregory could be a good author, but she may be a poor recreator of personality. I didn't like any of the characters in this story - but Mary I, it was nice to see her in a positive way, I guess? I hated her portrail of Queen Elizabeth and I really did not care for the main girl, Hannah, a spanish Converso. She seemed like a real stretch to put into this story - as were most of the siruations in the book. I know this is fiction, but it is HISTORICAL fiction, I expected of realism. Also, I went into this book really hoping to identify with Hannah on some Jewish sort of level at least - bubkus. Oh well, at least Ms. Gregory gave some nice discriptions of things.

Buy this book if you have no idea of who Queen Elizabeth and Mary are. Buy this book if you have no idea of Jewish culture and what a "Converso" was and how they would feel/act. Buy this book if you can find it cheap and want a dull read. What ever you do don't buy this book and expect to take something away with you.

Although I don't typically read these types of stories, after The Other Boelyn Girl, I would give anything Gregory writes a try. That book was one of the best books I've ever read.
The follow up to it, which is this book, wasn't as good, but was great in it's own right! The story of Hannah, the Queen's fool, is really about more than just her, it's about that whole period of time in England and about the royal family and it's enemies. I found everything quite interesting. And although at some points the story dragged for me, it didn't last long. There was always something new going on to catch your interest. I enjoyed most of the characters, but do be ready to memorize who is who- there are a lot of players involved!
I'd recommend this book, it was long, but worth every minute! And if you haven't read The Other Boelyn Girl, read that as well!

When I turned the final page of "The Other Boleyn Girl" I did not think it possible for Phillipa Gregory to out do herself.

I continue to marvel at the way Ms. Gregory fills pages with wonderful, colorful, magical words.

"The Queen's Fool", in my humble opinion, is historical fiction written with a difference.

A very brilliant and unusal angle is used to tell yet another fascinating tale belonging to the English.

Again, I find myself drifting to a previous century, sitting in the huge rooms of massive castles, feeling the bitter chill of cold run through my veins as does Hannah Green.

As much as times were difficult even to royalty, going back in time to witness a brief glimpse of such an intriguing era would be none other than pleasure for me.

I have a copy of "The Virgin's Lover" on my reading table as I write this review.

I shall savor each wonderful page!

-Yvonne Bornstein, Author, Eleven Days Of Hell

I picked this book up with high hopes. I was, however, disappointed.

Hannah Verde's mother is a victim of the Inquisition, and she and her father have run away from Castile to England, disguised as a bookseller and his apprentice.Hannah is also gifted with the Sight, the ability to see the future, and when John Dee of all people comes at her father's door, she is begged for a fool.

The general summary makes you want to grab the book and start reading it immediately. I guess my main issue with The Queen's Fool was how nothing really seemed to fit together. And by "nothing" I mean the characters and the plot. The entire story was filled with contradictions that flawed the otherwise good narrative.Once Hannah is begged for a fool, she feels an attraction to Lord Robert that is something akin to a crush. Or maybe something more than a crush--but this crush makes her willing to leave her father and betrothed, and serve Lord Robert as his fool and maybe, just maybe, something more. Hannah's love for her master is never fully described; Robert Dudley's charm and good looks are clear throughout the entirety of the story, but besides that there isn't much of a reason for Hannah to leave her family for a man whose worth the reader can't exactly understand, especially since that same man threatened her (with she being a Jew in a Protestant country).

Right before Robert Dudley is put in the Tower of London, he sends Hannah to spy on Princess Mary, later to be queen. Hannah respects and admires her mistress, and has open disdain for Protestantism, which is rather strange considering that she is a converso Jew. It wasn't the virtuous, pitiable picture of Queen Mary that I disliked, for I am neither on Team Anne or Team Katherine, but Hannah's view of the woman made no sense. And even though she loves her queen and mistress, she is still very attached to Lord Robert, who sits in the Tower, waiting for his execution. And I still don't understand why she loves Lord Robert so much, either.

Then, all of a sudden, Queen Mary sends Hannah to her sister, Princess Elizabeth.I Elizabeth was portrayed correctly; she wasn't a saint, but she wasn't totally evil either. It seemed, at least to me, that Gregory didn't really side with Elizabeth or Mary--they seemed to be portrayed equally. But then again, all of a sudden Hannah, who just can't seem to make up her mind, is ditching her dad and fiance to join Elizabeth in the Tower, in her "time of need." This really puzzled me, because honestly--what has Elizabeth, Mary, OR Robert ever done for this poor Jewish girl, who deserves to have a life NOT based on their means?

But it was the main character, the narrator, Hannah that annoyed me most. All her desires lay in the Tudor court, causing her to hurt her father, her fiance and his family. Her fiance also baffled me. He was very inconsistent, ordering her around in a very misogynistic manner, and then being passionately in love with her the next. The former made sense, but the latter did not. It seemed as if the only love between the two was one that of a pair of teenagers giving into their hormones. There didn't seem to be any genuine liking.

I was expecting a lot about Hannah being a Jew and how it affected the plot as well as her persona. But the only memories of Spain she has is that of her mother, who died for her religion--and yet, here's Hannah, caught up in the intrigues of the Tudor court, which is all terribly self-contradictory. I think the only reason she was so involved in the Tudor court was for, well, the Tudors: that is, for the readers to learn about the Tudors through the eyes of a Jew who isn't really a Jew. It was a great idea, but it was just very messy. The whole idea had extreme potential, but Hannah was just a very incomprehensible character. It was hard to tell what she was and what she wasn't. The beginning hundred pages are enjoyable, but the goodness of the novel disintegrates after that.

I read the Other Boleyn Girl, and I loved it! So when I found this novel at the store, I purchased it immediately, but I found it dull and not anywhere near the greatness of the Other Boleyn Girl. As other reviews state, I felt the same way that this book seems to have been sloppily put together just to meet a deadline. And Hannah's ever-changing views about the main people in the book, Mary, Elizabeth, Daniel, and Robert are always different. She also seems to switch from hating them to loving them. How can Hannah love someone such as Mary when she is in danger of dying the same way her mother died by just being with the queen because she is a Jew? And I didn't like how they portrayed Elizabeth as some whore and a devious brat. But however, some of the information is pretty accurate, but I recommend this book if you are more of a Mary fan, not a fan of the previous book, the Other Boleyn Girl, because sadly, this book is a disappointment. :(

I don't give out 5 stars for many books, but "The Queen's Fool" is worthy. An excellent ficitional account, from the perspective of Hannah Greene, an adolescent girl, blessed with "the sight". She is a practicing Christian, but at heart a Jew, hiding her religion for fear of reprisal and punishement. Hannah becomes The Queen's Fool, and lives her life at Court, witnessing history as it happens.
I was not familiar with all of the history of the period, Queen Mary, Elizabeth, Robert Dudley, etc. but it was riveting. I could not put this book down and spent 3 late nights reading (well worth it!!)
Gregory brings this time period to life, with wonderful descriptions, dialogue and a great story. I highly recommend this book. Lose yourself in the past...time well spent.

I read this book because the narrator is a Marrano Jew and I am the head of a book club that requires a certain percentage of its books to have Jewish content. However, the novel was a tedious rendition of the plots, subplots and conspiracies between the remaining two children of Henry the 8th. Qween Mary, his daugher by his first wife and Princess Elizabeth, his beautiful red headed daughter by Anne Bolyn vie for control of the English throne. Mary a Catholic turns to burning all protestants and other heretics at the stake for refusing to become ardent Catholics. Even those that convert to Catholocism are not safe. Her inquisitors question their faith and if they don't meet with the inquisitors' satisfaction they are tortured to extract a confession and information and then burned at the stake. Much like the Spanish Inquisition perpetrated against the Jews, this horrifinc inquisition is perpetrated against the Protestants. Queen Mary suffers two false pregnancies or miscarriages. Her much younger and very handsome husband, Prince Phillip of Spain marries her as a sort of merger of the Spanish empire and the English crown. He falls for her much younger beautiful sister, Princess Elizbeth much to her consternation, for it was Elizabeth's mother who caused her mother to be imprisoned. Clearly, the author has researched her subject well. However, the banal vulgarity in a few of her romantic scenes was unneccessary and gratuitous something for which I have disdain.The language was pretentious though she may have used these words to establish a more accurate Tudor and Elizabethan atmosphere. Most of the book was tedious and plodding. The only parts that grabbed me were the subplots of Hannah's life outside court. However, that was only about 1/5th of the book and about 300 pages into it. The rave reviews on the back flap refer to her other novel, The Other Bolyn Girl. I suggest you read that instead. If I could I would give this book two and a half stars.

This is the first of the series that is written from an outsider perspective (e.g. Not a queen or princess or courtier). Hannah is the queen's fool and maintains a story of her own that doesn't entirely revolve around the court. Captivating and charming read.

THIS IS THE BEST BOOK EVER! Very relatable and sympathetic. Every decision the characters make, you can't help but think "What would I do in this situation?" I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in this era.

I LOVE this book, it's absolutely amazing. I read The Other Boleyn Girl first, because it had to do with Anne Boleyn due to the fact that I very much admire her, and that novel blew me away, so I decided to go on and read some more of her works. I fell in love with The Queen's Fool, which I feel a connection to in a way because I myself am Jewish. When Hannah's early life is being explained, you find that her mother was burned as a heretic in Spain, and that Jews were called "Marranos." That word was used for Jewish people during that time period to show the complete hatred the Spanish, and the world really, had for them. It means swine. The detail is wonderful, and I adored the relationship between Hannah and her betrothed. I love how it grows and matures as Hannah herself grows and matures. It really is a fantastic book with a beautiful story inside. Gregory's portrayal of Mary is off, yes, but I can see why she did that. Mary Tudor did not actually burn those she considered heretics because it was a good old time, but because she truly believed she was doing the right thing, what both God and the Pope would want her to do. Am I sympathetic with Mary now? No. But an author does have their own creative rights and views in a fictional novel, based on history or not.

I will discuss major plot points for The Queen's Fool and give very minor spoilers for a few other Gregory works in this review. If this bothers you, please do not read further.
Like many readers, I first found Gregory through her absolutely stellar The Other Boleyn Girl. I am not a Tudor scholar, but the world of paranoia and political machinations felt absolutely correct. Gregory is a very skilled writer, and, not incidentally, writes romance and intimate scenes with impressive economy and impact. I hunted down and read many Gregory books, many of which are out of print (though the superbly demented Wideacre and its two inferior sequels have been reprinted). I learned several things about the author Gregory. She has a good handle on history, and has the very rare talent of writing about historic people and events without essentially regurgitating the half-digested mental contents of a three-month library trip onto the page, as so many historical novelists who write about feisty gals are wont to do. As I mentioned earlier, she writes about sex and love in an involving and, yes, titillating manner. She does not impose artificial "happy" endings and she is happy to write about flawed, even despicable women (and men, though most of her main characters are women, with the delightful exception of John Tradescant in Earthly Joys) as opposed to the Rhodes Scholars of historic fiction. (Their only flaw? They're stubborn! Arggh! See: Pope Joan, Year of Wonders, to name two.) And she has an odd fondness for writing about people who are not at the center of things, but just off-center. The Other Boleyn Girl, of course, is a shining and beautifully executed example of this.
So I was obviously transported with delight when I saw The Queen's Fool in paperback; even its cover was reminiscent of The Other Boleyn Girl. The Queen's Fool certainly opens with a bang, no pun intended, and I was waiting for the book to be great. Well - it wasn't. The tension and lust and mild historic elaboration in the first chapter? That was the high point.
The main character in this book is a young Jewish girl named Hannah Green (or Hannah Verde.) In an intriguing touch of the fantastic, Hannah is psychic. She, together with her father, is fleeing the Inquisition in Spain, which has claimed her mother. Hannah is also extremely well educated, which is understandable, since her father is a bookseller and Jews tended to be more literate in that time period on average. However, as I continued to read, Hannah's tale failed to grab me. Hannah is engaged to a nice Jewish boy, but she's in lust with the very hot Robert Dudley. And she wears boy's clothing, which she apparently continues to wear through most of the book.
(Please, girlfriend!)
Gregory plays around with Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, making the first sympathetic (at least at first) and the second kind of a bitch, but a charming one. She's at her best when writing about the queens. But Hannah - I was surprised to see it - she's dull. And her story line is shockingly treacly, especially for Gregory. The nice Jewish boy? She kind of falls for him and they have a nice sensible relationship based on respect. Think she has any real conflicts with her dad because she's a secret Jew at court? Well, he frets a lot, but that's about it. He doesn't even really mention her boy's clothing. Oh, and then he conveniently dies. Is Hannah witness to all the upheaval of court? Some of it. Then she goes to Calais and kind of hangs out for the last third of the novel. As the novel progressed, I kind of got the idea that Hannah, quite honestly, wasn't that important except for the fact that some important people liked her. There is no real dramatic payoff to her personal relationships. Heck, she even has fewer psychic flashes as the novel continues.
So is it at least romantic and/or sexy? Does she get into a hot steamy affair with the forbidden Robert Dudley, whom she mopes about for much of the book? Well, sorry to break it to you, but no. In fact, even though Daniel and Hannah are supposedly hot for each other, do we get a payoff when they finally get together? No. And why the kid? WHY THE KID? Geez, I thought I was reading the 16th century X-Files for a moment! It's not like I need every Gregory main character to be a sociopath, but who is this treacly, perfect, boring girl, and why is Gregory writing about her?
However, Gregory's other strengths are on display - good historic knowledge, seamless writing, and general page-turning inducement. It's not a terrible book, and it's certainly better than 90 percent of historic fiction. Still, I know from my reading of Gregory's oeuvre that she's an intriguing but uneven writer. This is one of the (relative) duds. Come on, Philippa, buck up - I know you've got it in you!

Philippa Gregory writes wonderful historical fiction.

Hannah Green is a wonderful, complex young woman who is caught between childhood and adulthood, Christianity and Judaism, her desires and what she feels is her duty, and between life as a commoner and life at the court of Mary I and Elizabeth, in the role of fool. This is an excellent ficitional account, from the perspective of Hannah Greene, an adolescent girl, blessed with "the sight". Her relationship with Mary, Elizabeth, Robert Dudley and Daniel, her betrothed, were all fascinating to read about.

I would also recommend reading "The Other Boleyn Girl"...which was an excellent book.

This is one of the many Philippa Gregory books I have read and it was good, but not one of my favorites. I prefer her books about the actual royals. This book should have just been entitled "The Fool" because the Queen was barely part of the book. I read this on my honeymoon, next to the beach, and that is the perfect read for that setting. Enjoyable but not a favorite.

This was the first of Philippa Gregory's books for me. As you hope a book will do, this one grabbed me in the beginning. But then, it started to drag. Hannah the Fool is a young girl dressed as a boy in order to hide her heritage and religion. Hannah and her father are constantly looking over their shoulders in fear of the Inquistion. She becomes the King's fool first, but after he dies, she quickly becomes a close confidant to both Queen Mary and Princess Elizabeth. This is where I got stuck. How can Hannah love (as she professes throughout the book) two women who are basically trying to eliminate each other? Oh, and don't forget Hannah's infatuation with Lord Robert, Princess Elizabeth's lover who played an instrumental role in trying to take the throne from Queen Mary. The historical aspect of the book was the exceptional part. It takes true talent to be able to research a topic as confusing as Britain's royals and weave it together with a fictional story. The story takes many twists and turns, especially toward the end, but only a few of those twists and turns enticed me to continue reading. I always try to make a good faith effort to finish books I start, even when I'm not interested in it. I finished this novel for one simple reason: Ms. Gregory is a good writer.

I couldn't put this book down. It was refreshing to see this period historical novel based on a character who wasn't a Royal but a simple young 14 year old girl who is forced to flee Spain with her father. The novel is full of court intrigue, treason, and witchcraft. Our heroine must choose between the safe life of a commoner and the dangerous intrigues of the Court. This book is a very satisfying read and I loved every
minute of it and hated it when it ended. As a writer myself who will have her first book released in 2011 "Without Consent" by Virginia Degner, I enjoyed reading this fabulous author.
[...] is my parenting website, where I feature wonderful books for children. I am also starting a new series of articles on childhood obesity.

The ending actually upset me so much that I tossed the book across the room. I was really looking forward to this book, and ended up highly disappointed.
The main character never developed a personality, was flat and mundane. I didn't feel a connection to ANY of the characters in this book. Completely boring!

I don't give out 5 stars for many books, but "The Queen's Fool" is worthy. An excellent ficitional account, from the perspective of Hannah Greene, an adolescent girl, blessed with "the sight". She is a practicing Christian, but at heart a Jew, hiding her religion for fear of reprisal and punishement. Hannah becomes The Queen's Fool, and lives her life at Court, witnessing history as it happens.
I was not familiar with all of the history of the period, Queen Mary, Elizabeth, Robert Dudley, etc. but it was riveting. I could not put this book down and spent 3 late nights reading (well worth it!!)
Gregory brings this time period to life, with wonderful descriptions, dialogue and a great story. I highly recommend this book. Lose yourself in the past...time well spent.

I read this book because the narrator is a Marrano Jew and I am the head of a book club that requires a certain percentage of its books to have Jewish content. However, the novel was a tedious rendition of the plots, subplots and conspiracies between the remaining two children of Henry the 8th. Qween Mary, his daugher by his first wife and Princess Elizabeth, his beautiful red headed daughter by Anne Bolyn vie for control of the English throne. Mary a Catholic turns to burning all protestants and other heretics at the stake for refusing to become ardent Catholics. Even those that convert to Catholocism are not safe. Her inquisitors question their faith and if they don't meet with the inquisitors' satisfaction they are tortured to extract a confession and information and then burned at the stake. Much like the Spanish Inquisition perpetrated against the Jews, this horrifinc inquisition is perpetrated against the Protestants. Queen Mary suffers two false pregnancies or miscarriages. Her much younger and very handsome husband, Prince Phillip of Spain marries her as a sort of merger of the Spanish empire and the English crown. He falls for her much younger beautiful sister, Princess Elizbeth much to her consternation, for it was Elizabeth's mother who caused her mother to be imprisoned. Clearly, the author has researched her subject well. However, the banal vulgarity in a few of her romantic scenes was unneccessary and gratuitous something for which I have disdain.The language was pretentious though she may have used these words to establish a more accurate Tudor and Elizabethan atmosphere. Most of the book was tedious and plodding. The only parts that grabbed me were the subplots of Hannah's life outside court. However, that was only about 1/5th of the book and about 300 pages into it. The rave reviews on the back flap refer to her other novel, The Other Bolyn Girl. I suggest you read that instead. If I could I would give this book two and a half stars.

This is the first of the series that is written from an outsider perspective (e.g. Not a queen or princess or courtier). Hannah is the queen's fool and maintains a story of her own that doesn't entirely revolve around the court. Captivating and charming read.

THIS IS THE BEST BOOK EVER! Very relatable and sympathetic. Every decision the characters make, you can't help but think "What would I do in this situation?" I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in this era.

I LOVE this book, it's absolutely amazing. I read The Other Boleyn Girl first, because it had to do with Anne Boleyn due to the fact that I very much admire her, and that novel blew me away, so I decided to go on and read some more of her works. I fell in love with The Queen's Fool, which I feel a connection to in a way because I myself am Jewish. When Hannah's early life is being explained, you find that her mother was burned as a heretic in Spain, and that Jews were called "Marranos." That word was used for Jewish people during that time period to show the complete hatred the Spanish, and the world really, had for them. It means swine. The detail is wonderful, and I adored the relationship between Hannah and her betrothed. I love how it grows and matures as Hannah herself grows and matures. It really is a fantastic book with a beautiful story inside. Gregory's portrayal of Mary is off, yes, but I can see why she did that. Mary Tudor did not actually burn those she considered heretics because it was a good old time, but because she truly believed she was doing the right thing, what both God and the Pope would want her to do. Am I sympathetic with Mary now? No. But an author does have their own creative rights and views in a fictional novel, based on history or not.

I will discuss major plot points for The Queen's Fool and give very minor spoilers for a few other Gregory works in this review. If this bothers you, please do not read further.
Like many readers, I first found Gregory through her absolutely stellar The Other Boleyn Girl. I am not a Tudor scholar, but the world of paranoia and political machinations felt absolutely correct. Gregory is a very skilled writer, and, not incidentally, writes romance and intimate scenes with impressive economy and impact. I hunted down and read many Gregory books, many of which are out of print (though the superbly demented Wideacre and its two inferior sequels have been reprinted). I learned several things about the author Gregory. She has a good handle on history, and has the very rare talent of writing about historic people and events without essentially regurgitating the half-digested mental contents of a three-month library trip onto the page, as so many historical novelists who write about feisty gals are wont to do. As I mentioned earlier, she writes about sex and love in an involving and, yes, titillating manner. She does not impose artificial "happy" endings and she is happy to write about flawed, even despicable women (and men, though most of her main characters are women, with the delightful exception of John Tradescant in Earthly Joys) as opposed to the Rhodes Scholars of historic fiction. (Their only flaw? They're stubborn! Arggh! See: Pope Joan, Year of Wonders, to name two.) And she has an odd fondness for writing about people who are not at the center of things, but just off-center. The Other Boleyn Girl, of course, is a shining and beautifully executed example of this.
So I was obviously transported with delight when I saw The Queen's Fool in paperback; even its cover was reminiscent of The Other Boleyn Girl. The Queen's Fool certainly opens with a bang, no pun intended, and I was waiting for the book to be great. Well - it wasn't. The tension and lust and mild historic elaboration in the first chapter? That was the high point.
The main character in this book is a young Jewish girl named Hannah Green (or Hannah Verde.) In an intriguing touch of the fantastic, Hannah is psychic. She, together with her father, is fleeing the Inquisition in Spain, which has claimed her mother. Hannah is also extremely well educated, which is understandable, since her father is a bookseller and Jews tended to be more literate in that time period on average. However, as I continued to read, Hannah's tale failed to grab me. Hannah is engaged to a nice Jewish boy, but she's in lust with the very hot Robert Dudley. And she wears boy's clothing, which she apparently continues to wear through most of the book.
(Please, girlfriend!)
Gregory plays around with Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, making the first sympathetic (at least at first) and the second kind of a bitch, but a charming one. She's at her best when writing about the queens. But Hannah - I was surprised to see it - she's dull. And her story line is shockingly treacly, especially for Gregory. The nice Jewish boy? She kind of falls for him and they have a nice sensible relationship based on respect. Think she has any real conflicts with her dad because she's a secret Jew at court? Well, he frets a lot, but that's about it. He doesn't even really mention her boy's clothing. Oh, and then he conveniently dies. Is Hannah witness to all the upheaval of court? Some of it. Then she goes to Calais and kind of hangs out for the last third of the novel. As the novel progressed, I kind of got the idea that Hannah, quite honestly, wasn't that important except for the fact that some important people liked her. There is no real dramatic payoff to her personal relationships. Heck, she even has fewer psychic flashes as the novel continues.
So is it at least romantic and/or sexy? Does she get into a hot steamy affair with the forbidden Robert Dudley, whom she mopes about for much of the book? Well, sorry to break it to you, but no. In fact, even though Daniel and Hannah are supposedly hot for each other, do we get a payoff when they finally get together? No. And why the kid? WHY THE KID? Geez, I thought I was reading the 16th century X-Files for a moment! It's not like I need every Gregory main character to be a sociopath, but who is this treacly, perfect, boring girl, and why is Gregory writing about her?
However, Gregory's other strengths are on display - good historic knowledge, seamless writing, and general page-turning inducement. It's not a terrible book, and it's certainly better than 90 percent of historic fiction. Still, I know from my reading of Gregory's oeuvre that she's an intriguing but uneven writer. This is one of the (relative) duds. Come on, Philippa, buck up - I know you've got it in you!

Philippa Gregory writes wonderful historical fiction.

Hannah Green is a wonderful, complex young woman who is caught between childhood and adulthood, Christianity and Judaism, her desires and what she feels is her duty, and between life as a commoner and life at the court of Mary I and Elizabeth, in the role of fool. This is an excellent ficitional account, from the perspective of Hannah Greene, an adolescent girl, blessed with "the sight". Her relationship with Mary, Elizabeth, Robert Dudley and Daniel, her betrothed, were all fascinating to read about.

I would also recommend reading "The Other Boleyn Girl"...which was an excellent book.

This is one of the many Philippa Gregory books I have read and it was good, but not one of my favorites. I prefer her books about the actual royals. This book should have just been entitled "The Fool" because the Queen was barely part of the book. I read this on my honeymoon, next to the beach, and that is the perfect read for that setting. Enjoyable but not a favorite.

This was the first of Philippa Gregory's books for me. As you hope a book will do, this one grabbed me in the beginning. But then, it started to drag. Hannah the Fool is a young girl dressed as a boy in order to hide her heritage and religion. Hannah and her father are constantly looking over their shoulders in fear of the Inquistion. She becomes the King's fool first, but after he dies, she quickly becomes a close confidant to both Queen Mary and Princess Elizabeth. This is where I got stuck. How can Hannah love (as she professes throughout the book) two women who are basically trying to eliminate each other? Oh, and don't forget Hannah's infatuation with Lord Robert, Princess Elizabeth's lover who played an instrumental role in trying to take the throne from Queen Mary. The historical aspect of the book was the exceptional part. It takes true talent to be able to research a topic as confusing as Britain's royals and weave it together with a fictional story. The story takes many twists and turns, especially toward the end, but only a few of those twists and turns enticed me to continue reading. I always try to make a good faith effort to finish books I start, even when I'm not interested in it. I finished this novel for one simple reason: Ms. Gregory is a good writer.

I couldn't put this book down. It was refreshing to see this period historical novel based on a character who wasn't a Royal but a simple young 14 year old girl who is forced to flee Spain with her father. The novel is full of court intrigue, treason, and witchcraft. Our heroine must choose between the safe life of a commoner and the dangerous intrigues of the Court. This book is a very satisfying read and I loved every
minute of it and hated it when it ended. As a writer myself who will have her first book released in 2011 "Without Consent" by Virginia Degner, I enjoyed reading this fabulous author.
[...] is my parenting website, where I feature wonderful books for children. I am also starting a new series of articles on childhood obesity.

The ending actually upset me so much that I tossed the book across the room. I was really looking forward to this book, and ended up highly disappointed.
The main character never developed a personality, was flat and mundane. I didn't feel a connection to ANY of the characters in this book. Completely boring!

I loved it! I know it's historical fiction, but Phillipa helps me piece together so much of the history I love . Her writing paints such a complete and detailed picture of whatever story she is telling and this one was very entertaining and informative to me since I haven't read anything to this point, post Henry the VIII and his wives.

I read this book a few years ago and loved it. Today, while browsing I noticed that the eBook is $12.99?

This is an old book. The paperback version is going for a penny, used. Why in the world is the publisher charging so much for an eBook that can't be borrowed, resold or even used for kindling for the fireplace? Shame on this publisher. Consumers are not that stupid.

Word of advice- Reprice this for $3.99 and maybe people will buy it new instead of used and give the company an incremental monetary gain.

The Queen's Fool is a story about Hannah Green, a girl whose mother was burned at the stake and later becomes a "seer" and the court's spiritual fool. Hannah lives with her father until courtiers come into his bookshop one day and Hannah has a vision. The courtiers bring her to court to use her psychic powers to their advantage.

I normally really enjoy Gregory's books. They are quick-paced, interesting reads. However, this book was repetitive and boring. If the protagonist talked about "wiping the smut off her face" one more time, I was going to scream. Literally everything in the world reminded Hannah of her mother burning at the stake. Which in real life is understandable, but doesn't make for great reading. Plus the constant back-and-forth between Hannah's desire for freedom and her female duty to be a good daughter and wife got old quickly.

I just can't think of anything other word to describe Hannah other than boring... I know she led an exceptional life, living at court as a young woman dressed as a man, but I just didn't connect at all.

Just a disappointing book, but I will keep reading Gregory's novels.

In 1553 Hannah de Verde and her father flee Spain following the Inquisition burning her mom at the stake for being Jewish. With the help of the Carpenters, they open up a London bookstore changing their name to Greene. Their sponsors and the Greenes hide their Jewish traditions behind a Christian façade. Teens Hannah and Daniel Carpenter are betrothed to marry when she turns sixteen.
Scholar John Dee and Lord Robert Dudley arrive at the bookstore seeking books from the early ages of Christianity and Hebrew antiquity. Hannah, garbed in boy's clothing, mentions a third person with them that excites John as he realizes that God gave Hannah the gift of sight. She describes an angel.
Hannah delivers their purchases to Whitehall Palace. Robert introduces her to the ailing teen King Edward who names her his Holy Fool. She sees death lingering near Edward, but says nothing. Robert's father threatens to expose her and her father as Jews if she refuses the position. She accepts though Daniel is unhappy. Now her adventures amidst the royal intrigue begin over the next several years as Mary reigns.
The solid depiction of real 1553-1558 historical figures provide an in-depth look at an era of transition from an ailing King Edward through the short reign of Queen Mary to the point of ascension of Queen Elizabeth. That serves as a double edged sword as at times the story seems to go tediously on. Hannah is a strong protagonist who enables the audience to look closely at the royals and some key aristocrats while depicting the plight of the Jews in Western Europe. Historical readers will devour this deep look at England's mid sixteenth century monarchy.
Harriet Klausner

In 1553, Hannah Green and her father are fleeing from the Spanish Inquisition. Hannah's mother had been burned at stake for being a marrano and Hannah and her father seek refuge in London as a bookseller and his apprentice. Hannah dresses as a boy to help protect her identity. One day, she sees three men looking for her shop. One is the Lord Robert Dudley, who at that time held a very powerful position in the little King Edward's court as the son of the Regent. The other is John Dee, a famed scholar who searches feverently to know about the beginning of the world and the language of the angels. When they hear Hannah speak of the third, shinning man who she had seen, they discover the secret that she has the Sight, and the ability to see into the future. They immediately take Hannah away to be begged as their King's Holy Fool, where she says that the heavens are opening for Edward. This historical novel is a wonderful introduction into the rule of Bloody Mary and her rival the Princess Elizabeth. Told from the viewpoint of a passionate, courageous girl, this novel is a story you can't miss.

I got this book from the library. I enjoyed it as, rather than being written from the viewpoint of the monarch, it is told by one of her subjects. It primarily tells the story of Bloody Mary's rein. Not my favorite book but certainly worth reading.

This book was boring, boring, boring. Hannah went back and forth, back and forth. She was loyal to Mary, then the next day it was Elizabeth, then literally the next day it was Robert Dudley, then Mary, then Elizabeth, then Robert. I kept waiting for something to happen. Then she loved Daniel, then she didn't love Daniel, then she loved him again........too much. I liked The Other Boleyn Girl but The Queen's Fool was inferior.

There were definitely things I liked about this book such as the portrayal of Queen Mary, life at and away from the court, and the "secret" life of the Jews. The background of the book seems very accurate and well researched and consistent with other books of this time period. However, the narrator Hannah Green just does not seem believable. The fact that Hannah seems to easily find herself in the position to be "selected" to become the queen's fool is a bit of a stretch. Her relationship with Daniel while still maintaining the role of an intimate friend of both Mary and Elizabeth seems also very improbable.

This is the only book I've read by Philippa Gregory; I'm not sure I'll pick up another one. This was a light entertaining read, but it does not stand up to the works of Jean Plaidy

Ms. Gregory's The Queen's Fool is as beautifully written as her other historical fiction novels. We continue the story of the Tudor line in England, but instead of being guided through a queen's view or a princess's view, we read through the eyes of Hannah the Fool. Hannah is a wonderful character who grows from an apprentice tomboy to a desirable woman. We pick up the story from Henry VIII's last wife to see his son, Edward IV, on the throne. Edward, ruled through the Duke of Northumberland, dies and the throne is shoved into the hands of Jane Grey (Northumberland's relation). The victory is short-lived, because Mary (Henry VIII's first and only child with Katharine of Aragon) raises an army to fight for her as Queen. Though she wins, it is not long before her sister, Princess Elizabeth (Henry VIII's first and only child with Anne Boleyn), conspires to take the throne. Hannah is thrown in between the half-sisters and must use her Sight as a gift to help both women. The story line is filled with historical fact, tweaked enough to give a well rounded account of The reign of Queen Mary I and Queen Elizabeth I. WONDERFUL!

After reading The Other Boleyn Girl (which I loved), I decided to give this book a try. Half way through (which was 375 pages worth of reading time that I'll never get back) I ended up just giving up. The plot moved so sloooowly. And it was very repetitive. How many times do we have to hear Hannah explain how "if you are near the Queen (or Princess) you can't help but love her"? I think the author spent too much time establishing Hannahs good heart and innocence when she should have been developing other characters or moving forward the story. They moved from castle to castle and around and around which could have all been cut out and would have saved some segments of sheer boredom. Also, how many times did she go to her fathers house and low and behold Daniel was there? That was a thinly veiled and predictable love triangle. Speaking of, we were given no reason to care about Robert Dudley, so the love triangle didn't work for me. This book had potential, but could have been saved by some major editing. I would pass on this one.

It was hard to put this book down. I read it over a weekend and nothing could keep me away.

Hannah is a fantastic character that everyone can relate to. Whether one has faced prejudice, or persecution for ones own convictions. Whether one has ever loved, or run away from some thing. She's so "normal" and yet so different. When Hannah had a crush on Lord Robert, I felt as if I wanted Lord Robert for her. When Hannah found out about her husbands extra marital affair, I felt as if I were upset by it. The story really captivates you and you miss Hannah Verde when the story is over.

What I loved most about the book, was that it was very historically based. I didn't know the story of Mary Tudor as well as I knew Elizabeth's story. This really brought the character to life and helped her to be seen in a softer light.

Fantastic book, couldn't put it down, and didn't want to anyway! I recommend it to everyone and anyone who loves history, novels, and the beauty of Tudor England.

Phillippa Gregory does an amazing job of transporting the reader into the age of the Tudor Queens. From the moment I picked it up, I have had to tear myself a way from it! Hannah is an admirable story teller and her tale (along with those of Qeenn Mary and Elizabeth) is one of self journey and discovery. Gregory paints a splendid and horrifying picture of a time period filled with religious zeal, fear and political intrigue.

Yet another great book by Ms. Gregory. This Book follows Hana Green (Anglisized from Verde) who whith her father come from Spain, where there is Religious Persecution of Jewish people, (when the German people did the persecution of the Jewish people during World War 2.) This is a definate must read for any fan of Historical Fiction.

I really enjoyed this book. Its interesting to see a fool's life and the life at court. I thoroughly enjoyed the story line and the twists and turns of the plot. There were times when I hated Elizabeth and Robert Dudley and other times where you could be sympathetic to them - Queen Mary Tudor had a very sad and tragic life and even with her "Bloody Mary" monacle she was a very sympathetic character. Very good story.

Philippa Gregory gives medieval and renaissance fans a real treat to sink their teeth into with this 16th century tale of a Jewish refugee in the British court. Fleeing for her life, Hannah arrives in England but must fight a different battle for survival against the intrigue and upheaval of the Tudor court. This novel is non-stop action and a thrill for romance fans and historical fiction readers. Highly recommend!

After reading The Other Boleyn Girl, I expected a bit better from Gregory. This novel was however, quite boring. The first half was quite repetative and I found myself highly disliking the protagonist. The phrase "i am a fool, a holy fool, pretending to be a christian, while still a jew, and a fool" resurfaced about every other page. I found myself just trying to find a redeeming quality somewhere since I'd already read so much, and in the end, I think it just grew on me, partly because I knew it was finished.

I have to give Philippa Gregory a big THANK YOU! for approaching this story from a different perspective from The Other Boleyn Girl. It delves into the lives of those in poverty without straying far from the lavish lifestyles of English royalty and wealth. Again I was attached to the characters and their struggles while learning much about the time period and historical events. There were a few very alluring relationships between the narrator and the men she encounters creating a whirlwind of emotions for the reader but in the end, I was very pleased with the romantic outcome of the book. So if you are deciding whether or not you'd like to read this after having read The Other Boleyn Girl, I greatly encourage you to do so, you won't regret it!

What can't I say about this book?
I loved it, couldn't put it down (just how I felt about "The Other Boleyn Girl") Hanah Green is such a compelling character. I wanted to learn everything about her. I love how P. Gregory can put you completely into the story by the end of the first chapter, she has a way with words, paints a picture that you become part of. As a bookworm and a history lover, this has everything to fuel my imagination: intrigue, drama, romance, betrayal, mystery, secrets, facts and a heroine! (Infact there are 3 of them: Mary, Elizabeth and Hannah, all 3 womendraw you in and you feel like Hannah, torn between two amazing women.)
I dare anyone not to love this book for the storytelling and bonds that Philippa has managed to pull off for the 2nd time.

Like many others, I read The Queen's Fool after reading and loving The Other Boleyn Girl. I definitely found The Other Boleyn Girl to be the better of the two books. The author is great at mixing fact with fiction. The fiction part is the problem here. Parts seemed very repetitive and I, with my very meager knowledge of English history, could see what was coming with her move to Calais! Ideally I would have given this book 3 1/2 stars, but decided to round-up! Fast and enjoyable--good summer read.

I won't reiterate everything here, but I basically agree with the more negative reviews. I did find her feminist comments way out of character for ANY woman of that time. (One of those "give me a break!" moments when reading.) Once I got past the absurdness of how quickly this young girl became such a close confidante to top royalty, (another "GMAB!") and just accepted it, I enjoyed it more. In other words, if you can suspend disbelief it's rather entertaining. There were a few inconsistencies, and I spent 10 minutes looking for the first description in the book of Robert Dudley's wife as having brown eyes because later in the book her "big blue eyes" are mentioned. How does that get past an editor, much less the author?

Philipa Gregory did a wonderful telling of the reign of Queen Mary. I think she did an exceptional job in drawing the reader into the past, and into a time when heretics were burned at stake, and a battle for Catholism and Protestanism raged through the country. In this story, Hannah Green (Verde), is begged to be little King Edward's Holy Fool when she says that she saw a shinning figure behind handsome Lord Robert Dudley. This begins her life of court intrigues, and dangerous spying where she is no longer sure whom to trust and builds her life with lies made to those she loves. Hannah must at the same time decide where her future lays, and to embrace who she is. A novel full of passion, and courageous characters, this is a story that is a must read.

Philippa Gregory starts out with an interesting premise: a young Jewish girl, Hannah, (with the Sight, no less) acting as a "holy fool"/companion/spy in the courts of Edward and his sisters Mary and Elizabeth. Interesting premise, poor execution. While the descriptions of London and Calais are wonderful, the characters who inhabit those cities are never fully realized as walking, talking, breathing human beings. Hannah's motivations are never explained (how Hannah could be so devoted to Queen Mary, who blithely and stubbornly sends scores upon scores of people to same fiery death as Hannah's mother is never satisfactorily explained). Hannah's fiance, Daniel, is at turns passionately devoted to Hannah, breathtakingly chauvinistic in his attitudes towards her and willing to betray her. In short, Daniel does whatever the plot needs for him to do, without any rhyme or reason.

I read and enjoyed _The Other Boleyn Girl_. I believe Philippa Gregory is a talented author. However, _The Queen's Fool_ is in need of stronger, more consistent characters and a more fully developed plot.

This is the first Philippa Gregory novel I've read, and I chose this one because of the slight fantasy of the main character's "sight" that she uses to foretell events. This aspect I would have enjoyed had the author used it more; however, then it would be even more of a fantasy than historical fiction. Regardless, the story held my interest and I liked the characters.

Phillipa Gregory does a wonderful job of recreating a historical period, and I did enjoy her other Tudor work, The Other Boleyn Girl. I expected to enjoy this one as much, but couldn't.
I found the indiscriminately sympathetic portrayal of Mary (known to history as Bloody Mary) troubling. The author seemed to think that because Mary was a wronged wife, her excesses were excusable. Even more disturbing, and harder to swallow, is that the main character, Hannah, a secret Jew who lives in fear of being burned as heretic, remains loyal and uncritical of Mary until the end.
Either Hannah is an insensitive hypocrite, indifferent to the suffering of others because of her own safety as a royal favorite, or she is a poorly drawn character. It is hard to believe someone whose own mother was burned at the stake could remain loyal to a woman who sent so many to be burned alive.
Gregory blames Mary's ministers, pretending Mary was largely unaware of what was being done. A ruler with Mary's absolute power "unaware"? That makes her either a disconnected, incompetent ruler (not Gregory's view), or one so weak she was completely dominated by her ministers, which there is no reason to believe.
Gregory did succeed in showing how sad Mary's life was in many ways: Early separation from her mother due to her father's selfish whims, loss of her position, a youth spent in a kind of exile, an unfaithful husband.
However, I also saw her parents' flaws in her: obsessive attachment to a indifferent man, fanaticism and sense of absolute truth which both parents possessed, and worse, a ruthlessness and cruelty in enforcing her will inherited from her father.
"Bloody Mary" traumatized her country and was, ironically, probably one of the reasons England turned staunchly Protestant. If you happened to catch the recent cable movie "Charles II, The Last King" you can see how strongly the hatred/fear of Catholics persisted over a century later.
The other strange thing about "The Queen's Fool" is the unsympathetic portrayal of Elizabeth, the ruler who would prove the most tolerant of religous practices. What is worse is that Gregory's and Hannah's condemnation of Elizabeth is largely based on qualities, actions or feelings that Hannah also exhibits.
For example, Hannah's (and our) first view of Elizabeth is of a 14 year old girl flirting and kissing a married man (Thomas Seymour, a notorious womanizer). Yet, for much of the novel, Hannah is in love with a married man. She even spies on and betrays a trusting mistress (Mary) for love of him. Still, Elizabeth is considered a "whore" by Hannah (a word greatly overused by Gregory, used for any sexually active woman, though there were kinder words in use at the time).
Hannah also condemns Elizabeth for her secret Protestantism, stange considering she herself is a secret Jew. Why does she feel such loyalty to Catholicism anyway? It is the Catholics of Spain who have particularly persecuted her people, and Mary's husband is the Spanish King. English Protestants were benign by contrast.
The historical information about 16th century European Jews was interesting, and the most worthwhile part of "The Queen's Fool." Otherwise, not recommended.

A beautiful story about a young Jewish girl(Hannah)with the gift of sight, who struggles to hide her identity. When Hannah is begged to be the young King's Holy fool she sees her chance of escaping the cruel life of a peasant. But of course she gets much more than she bargained for. I loved this book, it recalled the famous events of England in the 1500s. I never wanted to put this book down! I highly recommend everyone to read it.

Gregory's writing is beautiful but the main character, Hannah, is an idiot. I know Gregory wanted to create Hannah as a "fool" in her personal life as well as life at court, but she so truly ridiculous that she is unrealistic. I loved the entire book except "Hannah". If you can get past her ongoing and very annoying crush on an unattainable older man and her unfathomable way of constantly putting herself and her family in mortal danger for no real reason, then you might like it. "The Other Boleyn Girl" is much, much better.

After reading The Other Boleyn Girl, I expected a bit better from Gregory. This novel was however, quite boring. The first half was quite repetative and I found myself highly disliking the protagonist. The phrase "i am a fool, a holy fool, pretending to be a christian, while still a jew, and a fool" resurfaced about every other page. I found myself just trying to find a redeeming quality somewhere since I'd already read so much, and in the end, I think it just grew on me, partly because I knew it was finished.

I have to give Philippa Gregory a big THANK YOU! for approaching this story from a different perspective from The Other Boleyn Girl. It delves into the lives of those in poverty without straying far from the lavish lifestyles of English royalty and wealth. Again I was attached to the characters and their struggles while learning much about the time period and historical events. There were a few very alluring relationships between the narrator and the men she encounters creating a whirlwind of emotions for the reader but in the end, I was very pleased with the romantic outcome of the book. So if you are deciding whether or not you'd like to read this after having read The Other Boleyn Girl, I greatly encourage you to do so, you won't regret it!

What can't I say about this book?
I loved it, couldn't put it down (just how I felt about "The Other Boleyn Girl") Hanah Green is such a compelling character. I wanted to learn everything about her. I love how P. Gregory can put you completely into the story by the end of the first chapter, she has a way with words, paints a picture that you become part of. As a bookworm and a history lover, this has everything to fuel my imagination: intrigue, drama, romance, betrayal, mystery, secrets, facts and a heroine! (Infact there are 3 of them: Mary, Elizabeth and Hannah, all 3 womendraw you in and you feel like Hannah, torn between two amazing women.)
I dare anyone not to love this book for the storytelling and bonds that Philippa has managed to pull off for the 2nd time.

Like many others, I read The Queen's Fool after reading and loving The Other Boleyn Girl. I definitely found The Other Boleyn Girl to be the better of the two books. The author is great at mixing fact with fiction. The fiction part is the problem here. Parts seemed very repetitive and I, with my very meager knowledge of English history, could see what was coming with her move to Calais! Ideally I would have given this book 3 1/2 stars, but decided to round-up! Fast and enjoyable--good summer read.

I won't reiterate everything here, but I basically agree with the more negative reviews. I did find her feminist comments way out of character for ANY woman of that time. (One of those "give me a break!" moments when reading.) Once I got past the absurdness of how quickly this young girl became such a close confidante to top royalty, (another "GMAB!") and just accepted it, I enjoyed it more. In other words, if you can suspend disbelief it's rather entertaining. There were a few inconsistencies, and I spent 10 minutes looking for the first description in the book of Robert Dudley's wife as having brown eyes because later in the book her "big blue eyes" are mentioned. How does that get past an editor, much less the author?

Philipa Gregory did a wonderful telling of the reign of Queen Mary. I think she did an exceptional job in drawing the reader into the past, and into a time when heretics were burned at stake, and a battle for Catholism and Protestanism raged through the country. In this story, Hannah Green (Verde), is begged to be little King Edward's Holy Fool when she says that she saw a shinning figure behind handsome Lord Robert Dudley. This begins her life of court intrigues, and dangerous spying where she is no longer sure whom to trust and builds her life with lies made to those she loves. Hannah must at the same time decide where her future lays, and to embrace who she is. A novel full of passion, and courageous characters, this is a story that is a must read.

Philippa Gregory starts out with an interesting premise: a young Jewish girl, Hannah, (with the Sight, no less) acting as a "holy fool"/companion/spy in the courts of Edward and his sisters Mary and Elizabeth. Interesting premise, poor execution. While the descriptions of London and Calais are wonderful, the characters who inhabit those cities are never fully realized as walking, talking, breathing human beings. Hannah's motivations are never explained (how Hannah could be so devoted to Queen Mary, who blithely and stubbornly sends scores upon scores of people to same fiery death as Hannah's mother is never satisfactorily explained). Hannah's fiance, Daniel, is at turns passionately devoted to Hannah, breathtakingly chauvinistic in his attitudes towards her and willing to betray her. In short, Daniel does whatever the plot needs for him to do, without any rhyme or reason.

I read and enjoyed _The Other Boleyn Girl_. I believe Philippa Gregory is a talented author. However, _The Queen's Fool_ is in need of stronger, more consistent characters and a more fully developed plot.

This is the first Philippa Gregory novel I've read, and I chose this one because of the slight fantasy of the main character's "sight" that she uses to foretell events. This aspect I would have enjoyed had the author used it more; however, then it would be even more of a fantasy than historical fiction. Regardless, the story held my interest and I liked the characters.

Phillipa Gregory does a wonderful job of recreating a historical period, and I did enjoy her other Tudor work, The Other Boleyn Girl. I expected to enjoy this one as much, but couldn't.
I found the indiscriminately sympathetic portrayal of Mary (known to history as Bloody Mary) troubling. The author seemed to think that because Mary was a wronged wife, her excesses were excusable. Even more disturbing, and harder to swallow, is that the main character, Hannah, a secret Jew who lives in fear of being burned as heretic, remains loyal and uncritical of Mary until the end.
Either Hannah is an insensitive hypocrite, indifferent to the suffering of others because of her own safety as a royal favorite, or she is a poorly drawn character. It is hard to believe someone whose own mother was burned at the stake could remain loyal to a woman who sent so many to be burned alive.
Gregory blames Mary's ministers, pretending Mary was largely unaware of what was being done. A ruler with Mary's absolute power "unaware"? That makes her either a disconnected, incompetent ruler (not Gregory's view), or one so weak she was completely dominated by her ministers, which there is no reason to believe.
Gregory did succeed in showing how sad Mary's life was in many ways: Early separation from her mother due to her father's selfish whims, loss of her position, a youth spent in a kind of exile, an unfaithful husband.
However, I also saw her parents' flaws in her: obsessive attachment to a indifferent man, fanaticism and sense of absolute truth which both parents possessed, and worse, a ruthlessness and cruelty in enforcing her will inherited from her father.
"Bloody Mary" traumatized her country and was, ironically, probably one of the reasons England turned staunchly Protestant. If you happened to catch the recent cable movie "Charles II, The Last King" you can see how strongly the hatred/fear of Catholics persisted over a century later.
The other strange thing about "The Queen's Fool" is the unsympathetic portrayal of Elizabeth, the ruler who would prove the most tolerant of religous practices. What is worse is that Gregory's and Hannah's condemnation of Elizabeth is largely based on qualities, actions or feelings that Hannah also exhibits.
For example, Hannah's (and our) first view of Elizabeth is of a 14 year old girl flirting and kissing a married man (Thomas Seymour, a notorious womanizer). Yet, for much of the novel, Hannah is in love with a married man. She even spies on and betrays a trusting mistress (Mary) for love of him. Still, Elizabeth is considered a "whore" by Hannah (a word greatly overused by Gregory, used for any sexually active woman, though there were kinder words in use at the time).
Hannah also condemns Elizabeth for her secret Protestantism, stange considering she herself is a secret Jew. Why does she feel such loyalty to Catholicism anyway? It is the Catholics of Spain who have particularly persecuted her people, and Mary's husband is the Spanish King. English Protestants were benign by contrast.
The historical information about 16th century European Jews was interesting, and the most worthwhile part of "The Queen's Fool." Otherwise, not recommended.

A beautiful story about a young Jewish girl(Hannah)with the gift of sight, who struggles to hide her identity. When Hannah is begged to be the young King's Holy fool she sees her chance of escaping the cruel life of a peasant. But of course she gets much more than she bargained for. I loved this book, it recalled the famous events of England in the 1500s. I never wanted to put this book down! I highly recommend everyone to read it.

Oh what a glorious read! This is one of the first "fun books" I have read since my college career began and I am pleasantly surprised that historical fiction can be so satisfying to read. You visit Tudor England through the eyes of Hannah, a Jewish girl on the run from the Spanish Inquisition with her father. She ends up unwillingly tangled within the conspiracies of the Dudley's to put Jane Grey and Princess Elizabeth on the throne after the death of young King Edward. She is used for her powers to "see" the future as well as a spy between Queen Mary (Bloody Mary) and Princess Elizabeth. She finds herself growing into womanhood amongst courtiers and learns through her trials and tribulations that she is indeed deeply in love with her husband. This book not only has an addicting storyline, but has bits of English history tucked magnificently into the pages. I love this book and would recommend it to anyone in search of a satisfying read.

Gregory's writing is beautiful but the main character, Hannah, is an idiot. I know Gregory wanted to create Hannah as a "fool" in her personal life as well as life at court, but she so truly ridiculous that she is unrealistic. I loved the entire book except "Hannah". If you can get past her ongoing and very annoying crush on an unattainable older man and her unfathomable way of constantly putting herself and her family in mortal danger for no real reason, then you might like it. "The Other Boleyn Girl" is much, much better.

I slogged through this novel, hoping to find some redeeming value, only to be disappointed. I found the pace slow, repetitive, and mostly boring. Some of the plot twists were interesting, but barely believable. The main character, Hannah, had no integrity. She curried favor with whomever she happened to be with at the time, and was very disappointing. No heroine here, really. I really wanted to like her, but her feminism and intermittant chutzpa just didn't correlate with what is known about women of the time.

I am reading this book right now & am about 3/4 finished. I really like it. I love this period & even though it is a novel & there wasn't a girl named Hannah the rest of the book is close to true. All of the people that are involved in this book, except Hannah, are real. And what was going on at that time was real. It is about Queen Mary and her sister Elizabeth & Hannah is involved with both of them. If you like reading about this period you will like the book.

I thought this book was really really good. The only problem I had with it was the amount of talking...talk talk talk. My favorite parts were Hannah's time with Daniel and his family. I had never read into Queen Mary I's life before, so I found that interesting too...although I just wanted Hannah to hurry up and realize that Daniel was in love with her! But, overall it was a very good book and only took me three days to read it!

The best thing about this book was the way that she was able to treat both Elizabeth I and Mary Tudor as sympathetic and likeable characters, even as they are volleying for the throne. It was an interesting read, with some rather unbelievable aspects, including the character of the narrator and her relationship with her husband.

This book is about a Jewish girl named Hannah Green who flees from Spain in fear of the Spanish Inquisition after witnessing her mother being captured and burned alive at the stakes for being a Jew. She comes to England with her father and lives as a Christian while following the Jewish religion in secrecy. Through a chain of events she becomes a royal jester and a spy - for both Queen Mary and Elizabeth.

Throughout the book Hannah talks about how she misses her mother and can still smell her mother's burning flesh from the stakes and then also repeatedly professes her love for Queen Mary and what a wonderful woman she is. It is well documented in history as well as this book about Queen Mary's burning of hundreds of non-Catholics at the stakes. A practice that earned her the name - Bloody Mary. The book is very sympathetic towards Queen Mary and portrays her as a virtuous woman who believed that she was burning people for their own sake - "only doing what she believed to be right in her heart".

The fact that Hannah was living her life in fear of being discovered as a Jew and continued to profess her love for Queen Mary was extremely unbelievable. Overall less than mediocre writing, overly sympathetic portrayal of Mary Tudor and an unlikable heroine was a deal-breaker for me.

I liked this book, especially when I could read it after reading the preceding book, The Other Boleyn Girl, but I didn't find it as capturing as its predecessor. I found Hannah a little weak and I didn't like how Queen Mary was portrayed; I pitied her, but still found her a bit obnoxious at times. This is a good read and gives another facinating look into the tumultuous Tudor-era. I would especially recommend reading this after reading The Other Boleyn Girl. Both of them together helps you understand the Tudor hisory much better.

I loved this book. I had never read a book from this time period before, and wasn't sure whether it would be one that I would enjoy, but I thoroughly did. Although many of the characters had traits that annoyed me, I thought the author did a fantastic job of transporting the reader to the era, and there were plenty of twists and turns to keep me wondering what would happen next. I will certainly be reading other books by Philippa Gregory in the future.

I have read them all, and enjoyed them- well, nearly all. This was far and away the best of the lot. I couldn't put it down, and when my husband told me at 2 am to please go to bed, I got up and finished it in the living room. Great book.

You will love this book if you love English history and novels written in that period. We are going to London in one month, and I am anxious to see some of the places talked about in the book. I highly recommend - the story keeps you interested throughout the whole book!!

This is a great book, easy to read. It's a historical-fiction book so the reader must keep that in mind. Some of the items in the book are correct, some are embellished, some are made up. It still a great read and perfect for a summer book list.

It took me the better part of a month to read this book. It just didn't measure up to THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL at all. Although Hannah was redeemed as a woman in the end, I don't see why she was so interesting to warrent an entire book told from her perspective. I wished the book had been told from multiple points of view as I was wanting to be at court with the queen or at Lady Elizabeth's lair more often than Hannah was at either.
I can't say I don't recommend this book, I just didn't find Hannah all that interesting to warrant 500 pages of her own story.

I enjoyed reading this book on vacation because it was fun to read in long stretches. I actually read 200 pages in one day. It was one of those books that you can't wait to get back to. I read this book AFTER I read THE QUEENS LOVER but chronologically this one might have been better to read before that one. It is as close as you can get to a 'behind the scenes' look at the monarchy during the reformation.

3 stars only because Hannah is a fascinating character. The story however is preposterous and insulting. Unlike the boring "The Other Boleyn Girl" (too many insipid women chasing after a dull man), this book has good characters, especially the heroine Hannah who is intelligent, curious, and interested both in people and in ideas.

Hannah's circumstances are implausible but acceptable as improbable fiction. However, there is a difference between improbable and impossible. It's not possible that a human being would love that monster, Bloody Mary, when her own mother had been burned alive by people like her. What child, or any human being of flesh and blood would do this?

Not to say that Hannah herself is sent to the stake by this very "nice" lady! And what does Hannah do? Just exactly the opposite of what you and I would do. She runs back to her Queen like a good little girl. But then book characters know they'll end up well anyway so they can take big risks. How convenient of the author to have Hannah saved juuuust at the right time from inquisitorial torture.

Hannah is a sensitive and perceptive person. How can such a person feel great empathy for someone tortured in the Tower or burned to death, and at the same time be blind to the hand that sets these horrors in motion?

Despite the author's great efforts to present a different picture, I found Elizabeth a highly likable person. Many authors of historical fiction portray her as promiscuous, although I believe the historical evidence for it is scant. One wonders why they feel a need to diminish such a great woman... but then again, it seems the norm with great female historical figures.

Through the use of historical fiction, Ms. Gregory allows the reader to feel what it must have been like living through an important period in English history. The book is very engaging as both novel and history and I can't wait to read the sequel.

Philippa Gregory will be another Anya Seton, although I think she compares most favorably already. The author uses history and then tells the part that we all wish we could know. She gets inside of the historical character's minds and pulls the reader in for the ride. I have read The Other Boelyn Girl and Zelda's Game, and her Favored child trilogy. Zelda's game is a huge departure from her historical fare but shows how rich this author's mind is.

Gregory's mastery in creating the Tudor world is once again seen in THE QUEEN'S FOOL. although not as good as 'the other boleyn girl' when it comes to the main character, it still is a great page turner.

Hannah's story does tend to stop in the middle of the novel, but it regains its strenght in a few chapters and the ending is just great.

it is certainly a must read for all those Tudor era lovers and those who want a good historical novel to read.

'The Queen's Fool' was a pretty good book. The main character, Hannah, is a fool for Edward, and eventually, Mary and Elizabeth. She has the 'Sight' which allows her to 'see' the future.
The book was pretty historically accurate although Philippa Gregory's portrayal of Queen Mary was a bit different than what most historians would say. In the book, Queen Mary wasn't portrayed so much as 'Bloody Mary' and she seemed more compassionate.

I absolutely loved The Other Boleyn Girl, and wanted to get my hands on other Gregory books as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, I was rather disappointed by The Queen's Fool. I didn't find the character of Hannah to be as deep or emotional as Mary in TOBG. The story was a bit choppy, and Hannah's clairvoyance didn't do much to add to the plot (had she not been clairvoyant, I think the story could have been much the same). All in all, I didn't enjoy this book quite as much.

If you have an avid facination with the life and times of the 16 century English then this is the book for you. The descriptions of the time make you feel like you are right there next to the main character. Walking through her life and finding so many ideas and concepts that were different for those times. It was well written and easy to read.

It took me the better part of a month to read this book. It just didn't measure up to THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL at all. Although Hannah was redeemed as a woman in the end, I don't see why she was so interesting to warrent an entire book told from her perspective. I wished the book had been told from multiple points of view as I was wanting to be at court with the queen or at Lady Elizabeth's lair more often than Hannah was at either.
I can't say I don't recommend this book, I just didn't find Hannah all that interesting to warrant 500 pages of her own story.

I enjoyed reading this book on vacation because it was fun to read in long stretches. I actually read 200 pages in one day. It was one of those books that you can't wait to get back to. I read this book AFTER I read THE QUEENS LOVER but chronologically this one might have been better to read before that one. It is as close as you can get to a 'behind the scenes' look at the monarchy during the reformation.

3 stars only because Hannah is a fascinating character. The story however is preposterous and insulting. Unlike the boring "The Other Boleyn Girl" (too many insipid women chasing after a dull man), this book has good characters, especially the heroine Hannah who is intelligent, curious, and interested both in people and in ideas.

Hannah's circumstances are implausible but acceptable as improbable fiction. However, there is a difference between improbable and impossible. It's not possible that a human being would love that monster, Bloody Mary, when her own mother had been burned alive by people like her. What child, or any human being of flesh and blood would do this?

Not to say that Hannah herself is sent to the stake by this very "nice" lady! And what does Hannah do? Just exactly the opposite of what you and I would do. She runs back to her Queen like a good little girl. But then book characters know they'll end up well anyway so they can take big risks. How convenient of the author to have Hannah saved juuuust at the right time from inquisitorial torture.

Hannah is a sensitive and perceptive person. How can such a person feel great empathy for someone tortured in the Tower or burned to death, and at the same time be blind to the hand that sets these horrors in motion?

Despite the author's great efforts to present a different picture, I found Elizabeth a highly likable person. Many authors of historical fiction portray her as promiscuous, although I believe the historical evidence for it is scant. One wonders why they feel a need to diminish such a great woman... but then again, it seems the norm with great female historical figures.

Through the use of historical fiction, Ms. Gregory allows the reader to feel what it must have been like living through an important period in English history. The book is very engaging as both novel and history and I can't wait to read the sequel.

Philippa Gregory will be another Anya Seton, although I think she compares most favorably already. The author uses history and then tells the part that we all wish we could know. She gets inside of the historical character's minds and pulls the reader in for the ride. I have read The Other Boelyn Girl and Zelda's Game, and her Favored child trilogy. Zelda's game is a huge departure from her historical fare but shows how rich this author's mind is.

Gregory's mastery in creating the Tudor world is once again seen in THE QUEEN'S FOOL. although not as good as 'the other boleyn girl' when it comes to the main character, it still is a great page turner.

Hannah's story does tend to stop in the middle of the novel, but it regains its strenght in a few chapters and the ending is just great.

it is certainly a must read for all those Tudor era lovers and those who want a good historical novel to read.

'The Queen's Fool' was a pretty good book. The main character, Hannah, is a fool for Edward, and eventually, Mary and Elizabeth. She has the 'Sight' which allows her to 'see' the future.
The book was pretty historically accurate although Philippa Gregory's portrayal of Queen Mary was a bit different than what most historians would say. In the book, Queen Mary wasn't portrayed so much as 'Bloody Mary' and she seemed more compassionate.

I absolutely loved The Other Boleyn Girl, and wanted to get my hands on other Gregory books as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, I was rather disappointed by The Queen's Fool. I didn't find the character of Hannah to be as deep or emotional as Mary in TOBG. The story was a bit choppy, and Hannah's clairvoyance didn't do much to add to the plot (had she not been clairvoyant, I think the story could have been much the same). All in all, I didn't enjoy this book quite as much.

If you have an avid facination with the life and times of the 16 century English then this is the book for you. The descriptions of the time make you feel like you are right there next to the main character. Walking through her life and finding so many ideas and concepts that were different for those times. It was well written and easy to read.

This book was so interesting. It told a historical story using a character that we wouldn't look for in the history books. It made me wonder about all of the little people who influence major historical events but aren't recognized because they seem unimportant. I really felt like I was THERE, experiencing everything firsthand because the descriptions were so good. I felt Hannah's frustrations and suffered through her choices with her.

I thought this book was fantastic. I absolutely love European History-- especially books about Henry VIII, and the enticing stores he has left as his leagacy. I could not put this book down. I also read the complimenting book-- The Other Boelyn Girl-- which was just as great. I would definitely recommend this book to others-- with one exception-- there are many "racy" scenes about sex and the like. But I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves European History.

I loved this book and for the most part couldn't put it down. I have always been fascinated with religious conflict and this book makes both that and the royal character's involved come to life. I bought it on a whim at Barnes and Noble in London and it totally added to my experience in England. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes good historical fiction. Great job author, I will definitely have to look up some of your other books!

I thoroughly enjoyed this story. It was a wonderful follow-up to The Other Boleyn Girl which i could not put down. The character development is done beautifully and draws you in immediately. The historical perspective is tantallizing. Hannah is the type of girl we hope we all have something in common with. She is the perfect combination of foolish yet bright, independant yet naive, progressive yet traditional, and she just wants to be loved...dont we all?

The historical information presented by the book, even the last detail, is extremely accurate. It serves as a history lesson woven into a fascinating storyline. Although the book lacks a structured plot or even a clear struggle for the protagonist, Hannah Green, it follows her adventures and is definitely interesting.

What a twist on the Tudor dynasty ~ as seen from the perspective of the court fool, a young woman used as a pawn between Queen Mary and the Princess Elizabeth, constantly tested upon her loyalties and allegiances to each and also their respective Catholic & Protestant faiths, all the while hiding her own Jewish heritage. A nice diversion from the everyday blahs. Happy Reading~

This book is nothing but GOOD to the last page !!! Philippa Gregory is a superb writer she holds your interest all the way.

My daughter and I are into reading all of her books concerning history and the Court of Henry VIII. If you like history I recommned this book.

The purpose of historical fiction is to create believable characters that function within historical parameters, thus providing the reader with an intelligent, insightful story, as well as a history lesson. "The Queen's Fool" does neither. Hannah, while certainly a girl with an interesting past, would not be as headstrong and feministic as she is portrayed by Gregory. In the 1560s, such women simply did not exsit, and it is an anachronoism to pretend otherwise. Gregory's simplistic portrayal of Mary as a pius martyr and Elizabeth as a shrewd slut fails to bring the characters beyond the level of high school gossip. The book could have been written in 70 pages, instead we are forced to endure 400 pages of whinny, repetitive characterizations.

I have read this book 3 times. I can't seem to get enough and every time, I see a detail I missed previously. Philippa Gregory has such a beautiful way with words, much as Sandra Gulland does. I enjoyed this and would recommend to anyone. You don't have to be a history buff to like it! I also would recommend "The Other Boleyn Girl".

Phillipa Gregory is among the best historical fiction writers of our time.

Her portrayals of Robert Dudley,Elizabeth,and the whole of Tudor court life are ingeniusly accurate (I should know,I was there),and I liked the twist on popular opinion...making Mary the good hearted,if not woefully misguided Queen; and Elizabeth aggravating,selfish,dastardly, but above all sphinxlike and clever.

Decidedly one of Phillipa's best novels,a wonderfully written romp through the terrors,follies,escapades,and trials of Bloody Mary,the nine day Queen,and Gloriana.

I'm not one for reading BUT this book caught my attention right away. I became interested in it by the cover and then within the first 2 pages of the story, it hooked me in.
Later it kept me interested because there was really never a dull moment. Some nights I didn't want to sleep because I wanted to know what happened. The book also makes you feel a wide range of emotion.

I thought that this book was truly wonderful. I'm really into the Tudor period of England and I loved that Hannah the Fool was a friend to all the children of King Henry VIII. I thought that it was extremely well written and provided lots of details. I also loved it because of the romance in it. This book definitely is on the top of my list!

I enjoyed this book. There were times when it seemd a bit repetitive, with Hannah constantly being shuffled between loyalties and plots. I don't believe that Hannah would have kept her loyalty to Mary when she egan to burn heritics, just like her mother was burned.

Like many others, I bought this as soon as I put down THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL. I pretty much wish I had my money back. Hannah is not a likeable character and the writing seems very surface level. I did emphathize with Mary but that was about it. I am giving Gregory another chance with WIDEACRE but I think I may have to stick to Robin Mawell or Sandra Gulland for historical fiction.

In The Queen's Fool, Philippa Gregory continues the story of Henry VIII's legacy in this book centered around the difficult reign of his eldest daughter Mary. While reading the previous 3 books is not a necessity, it will help the reader to understand the motivations and complicated relationships of the lead characters.

I loved this book! It was very fast-paced, hard to put down, and incredibly interesting! I was never really interested in history in school, but this book inspired me to look more deeply into events of that time period. I bought other books by this author as well, and they are just as intriguing and hard to put down! I definitely recommend this book!

I loved this book!!!! I could not put it down and read it in an entire weekend. I can't wait to read more of her stories. I have just started another one. It always took turns that I never saw coming. I feel like she does keep to the historical facts and then adds to them.

Truly one of the best historical novels I've ever read. It grabbed me from the start and I began to understand the life and times of the women, the church and the awful politics of early England. I highly recommend this book.

Jeana

This is one of the most fascinating eras of history for me and I truly enjoy reading Ms. Gregory's accounts of what happened between her long-dead characters. A must-read for any lover of Tudor England.

The Queen's Fool by Philippa Gregory is a fun story taking place in an era that I truly enjoy reading about and I believe anyone that enjoys getting lost with a romance of yesterday would enjoy this book as well.

I am obsessed with Philippa Gregory's Tudor novels. This one originally didn't interest me as much as the other ones but it ended up being one of my favorites. The supernatural/"holy gift" of Hannah's "sight" makes this book a hard one to put down. I look forward to Philippa's new book that comes out later this year.

This was not my favorite of Philippa's Tudor novels. I loved the Constant Princess which seemed more historical whereas this was basically a novel with little relevance to history. It was easy to read and entertaining but not what I expected after her earlier Tudor stories.

Priscilla Gregory does more than justice to a troubled time in British History.

Her descriptions give amazing depth to this engaging historical novel

I hope she will write a sequel to this prequel about the Fool as she ...... I don't want

to give away the books ending. Just let us say we want more of the same

I really enjoyed that this book let you see into the world of both Mary and Elizabeth. Often books center around Princess (Queen) Elizabeth, and while she is in this book most of the writing talks about a girls life during Mary's Reign. I really enjoyed it.

I love Philippa Gregory's books. While The Other Boleyn Girl remains my favorite, I loved this one. The plot was a little far-fetched, but it's fiction. Anything can happen. I liked Hannah's character alot, she was a very unique person. Not the type of girl you'd expect to see in 15th century England.