Isabella cover art

Isabella

She-Wolf of France

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Isabella

By: Alison Weir
Narrated by: Lisette Lecat
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About this listen

 Here is the first full-length biography of a much maligned but astonishingly colourful Queen of England.

In Newgate Street, in the city of London, stand the meagre ruins of Christ Church. On the same site once stood a royal mausoleum set to rival Westminster Abbey in the 14th century. Among the many crowned heads buried there was Isabella of France, Edward II's queen - one of the most notorious femme fatales in history. But how did she acquire her evil reputation? And is it justified? Alison Weir's engrossing biography sets out to put the record straight.

©2005 Alison Weir Europe Great Britain Politicians Politics & Activism England Royalty Thought-Provoking Tudor

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Critic reviews

"Pierces the veil of history with scholarly precision....A serious rendering of a sensational life." ( Irish Times)
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I've listened to many of Alison's historical novels about real figures, but this was my first factual book and I really enjoyed getting the facts that can be established as truth. When I visited Berkley Castle some years ago the hot rod was still the story told when we stood around the Kings cell.

Great debunking book

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Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Having listened to this book I know a lot more about Isabella, Mortimer and Edward II. There were times when I felt I needed to force myself to continue to listen as details of household accounts were listed and, for some reason I cannot understand, translated from pounds, shillings and pence to pounds and new pence without any attempt to account for inflation. There is little point in knowing three shillings and sixpence spent on food is equivalent to 17 pence without understanding that an annual income of ten pounds would have been considered a large amount.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Isabella?

The description of the disrespect shown to Isabella by Edward II and his infatuation and dominance by Piers Gaveston and Hugh Dispencer sticks in my mind. It showed the arrogance of absolute monarchs and the way being in the Kings favour was a route to fame and riches( not to say animosity and death)

Would you be willing to try another one of Lisette Lecat’s performances?

Other than some americanism and mispronunciations Lisette Lecat made a good job of the reading. I am sometime left wondering who actually listens to the whole of the readings before they are release and whether they don't notice the errors or si,ply let them pass.

Was Isabella worth the listening time?

About 75% of this book is interesting, well argued and very well presented. The problem is you have to listen to the other 25% to get to it.

Very good in parts but editing would have helped

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I hadn’t previously known anything about Isabella but this provides a good jigsaw puzzle piece to gaps in my historical knowledge.
Love the narrator, excellent performance. My only criticisms of the whole thing are as follows;

Equivalent modern monetary values would be useful, and I note that Alison Weir includes these in later books.

The editing is a little clipped and not smooth in places, between paragraphs and some sentences.

However, well worth a listen.

Educational and enlightening.

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Detailed, balance and clearly deeply researched.
Beautifully read.
I’m no historian but was captivated throughout.

Thorough

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I enjoyed this book and the narration as I do with other Alison weir books on here. my only criticism is that it was jumpy going in to new chapters but still enjoyed learning about a queen I have never read or studied before and the politics and difficulties she faced.

a different queen and view of medieval life.

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Having listened to and really enjoyed Lancaster and York by Alison Weir, I very much looked forward to listening to Isabella, She-Wolf of France. This book is meticulous in its level of detail, but unfortunately in my opinion this made it rather dry and boring at times. That said, I finished it as I am very interested in learning more about this historical period. I would recommend the book in terms of increasing my knowledge - but not as a pleasurable read.

Meticulous detail, but a bit boring

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I learned so much. Isabella was not as bad as she has been painted, apart from those 3 years with Mortimer. She tried to free England from the rapacious Despensers only to make the same errors herself. Also fascinating the tale that Edward II may have survived as a monk or friar.
Love books by Alison Weir

Interesting

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This is not a bad book, it's just dull, not a fan of the narrater and I felt the focus was more about Edward II as opposed to his wife and the title of the book. I was expecting to hear a story from the point of view of Isabella or at least to give her as many words as those for her husband.

Struggled with this

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I loved this book from beginning to end. There were several times I just couldn't stop listening when major events were being played out.

The narration was pretty awful and the pronunciation dire. This book deserved better.

Fascinating and very well researched.

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the reader has a very odd way of speaking in groups of words like bursts as though she's in pain. it's very odd and increasingly irritating.

strange narration

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