![]() ![]() Gristwood’s book offers something I particularly value: good footnotes, an extensive bibliography and a comprehensive index, aspects that modern publishers too often treat cavalierly. A singular chronicling of battles strips any sense of daily life and overlooks the influence of fiery women in determining victors in the game of thrones. She proclaims that to ignore the role of women is to “treat history as disaster tourism” - writing that deals so exclusively with “the roller-coaster ride as to get only a distorted picture” of what really shaped events. Gristwood’s perspective and lively writing are refreshing. ![]() Exceptions reinforce the rule, as in the lives of the six women wed to Henry VIII whose fates depended on their ability to produce a male heir for their lord and king. For too long, history has been the purview of men, of kings and their battles, wars, conquests, murders and thirst for power. It is, she says about the cunning and courage of seven women who “created a new English dynasty” between 1445 and the early 16th century. ![]() Biographer Sarah Gristwood leaves no doubt of her intent in the prologue to Blood Sisters: The Women Behind the Wars of the Roses. ![]()
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