Literature
ALISON WEIR
Elizabeth of York: The Last White Rose Richard Hopton, Sherborne Literary Society
E
lizabeth of York is an important figure in the history of late medieval and early modern England. Daughter of one king, Edward IV, wife of another, Henry VII, and mother of a third, Henry VIII, she is the ancestor of every English monarch since 1509, every Scottish monarch since 1513 and every British monarch since 1603. Alison Weir’s latest book is a fictionalised account of her life. Alison Weir is the United Kingdom’s best-selling 142 | Sherborne Times | June 2022
female historian who has written extensively about the English monarchy in the medieval and Tudor periods, including biographies of all six of Henry VIII’s queens. She is equally adept at fiction and nonfiction; this novel complements her earlier biography of Elizabeth of York, making it an interesting example of the interplay between history and historical fiction. There is, Weir writes, ‘a wealth of source material for Elizabeth’s story’ but history doesn’t always record ‘her
