For My Sins
The year is 1586, and Mary Stuart is sitting in an English prison cell at the end of her life, stitching her tapestries, haunted by the ghosts of her past - including John Knox, Bothwell, her half-brother Moray, and Darnley, the husband she was accused of conspiring to murder.
Darnley's murder became a mystery crime which remains unsolved to this day.
Only Mary can tell the true version of events, whilst quietly stitching her braid and entertaining the ghosts of her past.She has been Elizabeth's reluctant 'guest' for eighteen years, but she still has her supporters, most notably a young nobleman called Anthony Babington.
As her needle weaves in and out of the fine linen, she plots for Elizabeth's downfall. Her life before this was marked by murder, conspiracy and intrigue in the dark Scottish courts of Renaissance Europe and for Mary it is not over yet.
This is a novel written from Mary s perspective. She tells her own story - the secrets, the lies, the truth about what she really felt and thought of the men who tried to control her and the country she was born to rule.
Fresh insights, fresh material, original perspective. What it was like to be her...
The corridors of power, the conspiracy and intrigue, the factionalism and religious division...a woman in a man s world, up against the odds.
Still criticized, still loved... Only she can tell the truth.
If she writes it down now before her death, who will be entrusted to keep this memoir alive?
Reviews
Reviews from Amazon.
I loved this book! It really brought Mary Queen of Scots to life and gave her a voice. She is a woman whose history has always intrigued me. I get angry for her but at the same time she has always annoyed me - she made so many poor decisions and I always found her frustrating. This book did not remove any of that frustration, in a number of ways it actually added to it, mainly due to Mary’s reluctance throughout the book to accept personal fault for things that went wrong. But that is what made it feel real - there were parts where she got a little too woe-is-me but although it frustrated me a little, it was certainly understandable given her circumstances. I’d probably be pretty self pitying too to be fair! It gripped me throughout and I actually wish it had been longer, I enjoyed the writing style and story that much. Five stars from me :)
Mar 2019
When I was at school Scottish history was not taught. All I knew about Mary Queen of Scots was that she got her head chopped off. For My Sins is a fictionalised version of Mary's life. Told in her own words, this is an intriguing insight into the life of a young woman trying to rule in a man's world. Mary's voice is authentic and her naivety is believable. Being fiction, it might not be accurate, but I feel as though I know more Scottish history than I did before.
June 2017
Fabulous, fabulous, I loved reading this story through Mary's eyes! I've read perhaps 2 dozen historical fiction biographies of her and yet this still told me something new with regard to the Scottish Lords, Queen Elizabeth and how really strongly she was behind Mary's brother James, how they alienated Mary's son from her, the flat out refusal to tolerate her catholicism, the mistake she made in not having Knox imprisoned from Day 1 and stopping the bile he kept spreading so untruthfully and malignantly, what Bothwell probably really DID to her with regard to the infamous abduction, how horrible it is to be kept imprisoned without having freedom, her naivety in who she trusted, etc, etc., etc.
June 2017