The Other Queen... by Philippa Gregory

My 38th book this year! This one came highly recommended from SM. And I thoroughly enjoyed it, the history buff that I am. It's in the form of narratives from the main characters.... Mary Bothwell (Queen of Scots), George Talbot ( the Earl), Bess (his wife). I actually read up a bit the history of Mary, Queen of Scots in the midst of reading the book. With the Net these days, info is so easy to get.

The book is about old England when she was divided into Papist and Protestant. Like today, religion too was used as a tool to unite and segregate. The Protestants were seen as forward looking. The Papist stood by the old ways.... the need for a mediator between Man and God, etc. Religion has been the foundation of power bases, still are in many countries. In our country today, there is also the same folly. We divide people by making the trivial, major issues; what we wear and eat, how we pray etc... In the end, while the little and ignorant people slug it out, the power remains in those who control. That's the lesson from this book.

And those in power mete out harsh punishments to the little people. And there is also fabrication... pretenders like the advisor to the Queen, Cecil, who was not from the nobility but ended up as one... you can make parallel comparison even with our current situation. There's a former PM here who seems to have forgotten his Kerala roots too and anoints himself more native than the natives.... Who says history is boring, huh? If anything, history keeps repeating itself. LOL!

The power of seduction... from ages come, a woman's power of seduction can be a very enabling as well as incapacitating tool. And you find men swooning after beauty, manipulated like puppets on strings. Beauty can make even the strongest of men dance to its tune... till they get what they want. Then the tables are turned...

Status of women... PP pointed me to a site which says that it will take UK another 67 years to reach parity fo pay between men and women. Women have it better now than ever in recorded history I would say. But women have always lost out to men. I am glad I am living in this century. And I also touched a bit about emancipation of women here.

Men of power, women who dominated... this book has it all. This is a very nice and mind provocative read.

Personally, I don't make much distinctions between Catholics or Protestants; same God. When God created Man, he gave him the ability to choose.... so the choice each of us make... if you believe there is an Almighty, some day you'll have to answer for yourself... so all these moral policing, coercion, politicking of faith.... they're just political play tools for those in power, as has been in ages past and even now.

2 more to go and my amended target for this year would be achieved!