My Lord John by Georgette Heyer
John, Duke of Bedford grew to manhood fighting for his father, Henry IV of England. A prince of the royal blood, loyal, strong, the greatest ally that his brother — the future Henry V — was to have. Filled with the clash of bitter rivalries and deadly power struggles, this is Georgette Heyer’s last and most ambitious novel. (Goodreads)
I don’t think I’ve ever read anything about this era so I spent more time on google than reading and thank goodness for character list! But it’s so annoying and confusing when you can’t call someone the same name the whole time. I mean there’s half dozen Henry/Harry, John, Richard, Hugh, Thomas… No need confusing the reader by calling the person sometimes by their given name and other time by their title.
It was also quite slow to read. Heyer has tried writing how people spoke at the fifteenth century and it slows down the reading. There were many times I had to read the sentence few times to understand it.
I liked how John was portrayed and the scenes that focused on him but at times I felt like I was having history lesson instead of reading historical fiction.
Heyer died before the trilogy was finished, but did the book had to end in mid sentence?! Even if the manuscript breaks off like that. What were the editors thinking!
I liked this more than The Conqueror but I still wouldn’t recommend this.
2,5/5
Published: Pan (1975)
Format: Paperback
Pages: 384
Source: library