The Lady Elizabeth, The Uncommon Reader and Never Let Me Go

I wanted to read Alison Weir's novel The Lady Elizabeth as the middle third covered the period of 1547 to 1549, the exact three years on which I had based my screenplay about the Seymours. I have to say that it was painful reading another interpretation. I had been inspired to write the screenplay after reading the same author's factual Children of England, so she knows the history well. But her novel seems to me terribly badly written, and too much a distortion of the truth. The writing was dull and used a kind of mock Tudor language when the characters are speaking. I found it all very uncomfortable.

Back to a expert author of fiction. Alan Bennett is on top form with his short book The Uncommon Reader. An essay on how reading can change a life, this time it is the Queen herself who finds how rewarding it can be, much to the annoyance of those around her. A funny and very enjoyable story with a lovely twist at the end. Outstanding.

It is hard to describe Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. In a very original piece of fiction, contemporary England has been changed by just one imagined twist straight out of science fiction. It is memoir written by thirty one year old Kathy, starting with her childhood at the Hailsham school which is her home. There are questions that haunt her friends and the answers are gradually revealed through her lifetime to be not only disturbing, but in the end horrific. I liked the way the narrative was directed firmly at the reader. Kathy says things like " I need to tell you about this, but that will come later". I found the novel to be compelling and shattering. Not for the those of a sensitive nature.