The Book Depository Earthly Joys by Philippa Gregory
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Price: £11.55
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Description: Earthly Joys : Paperback : Harper Collins Publishers : 9780007228478 : 0007228473 : 27 Feb 2012 : Another sweeping novel from the No. 1 Sunday Times bestselling author. The Book Depository Earthly Joys by Philippa Gregory - shop the best deal online on thebookbug.co.uk
Category: Books
Merchant: The Book Depository
Product ID: 9780007228478
MPN: 0007228473
GTIN: 9780007228478
Author: Dr Hook fan
Rating: 5
Review: Thoroughly enjoyed this book and have ordered sequel.
Author: Erastes
Rating: 3
Review: I wouldn't say "if you aren't into gardening, don't get this," but you WILL appreciate it a lot more if you have an inkling of gardening and plants. It's the story of a very famous - and one of the first "celebrity" gardeners, John Tradescant who was a gardener to many famous people during the reign of three monarchs, Elizabeth I, James I and Charles I. She paints a very believable picture of John, his family and his life. John is a man who must belong to a master, that's how his life has always been and that's how he thinks his life must always be. He starts the book in the employ of Robert Cecil, building the gardens of Hatfield House and he is very close - a confidante and friend - to the great man, after he dies, John moves around from master to master until he is ordered to the new and fabulous estate of George Villiers - first Duke of Buckingham, favourite of the then King, James I and the most powerful man in the land. It is in Villiers service that he discovers a lot about the meaning of loyalty and a lot about himself. This is a "Romance" in both senses of the word, the author does a wonderful job telling a fair portion of Tradescant the Older's story, although missing out some portions of it, to my disappointment and amusingly missing out that he actually looked liked a pregnant goat, if the portraits of the day were to believed. It was easier NOT to look at what he looked like, then it would be easier to believe that the beautiful and notoriously bi-sexual George Villiers would want to bed him. I enjoyed it a lot, however, more - it has to be said - for the fascinating insight into the introduction of plants into England (he brought the first six horse chestnut "conkers" back to England for example, and lost money in Tulipmania) - rather than for the homosexual story. However, the litery license that Gregory takes by assuming an affair with Villiers works perfectly within the character that she has drawn and it's a vital thread in the book. Gregory writes convincingly and in a very approachable style although strangely I didn't get addicted to this book in ways that I have with others. There were some repetitive themes, where Tradescant bickers with his wife and I had no desperation to find out what happened next, even when I was in the early parts of the book. In fact it took me well over a month to read, while I read many other books in the interim.
