Katherine Swynford

I thoroughly agree with this author's love for the book "Katherine" and I was hoping to find out a lot more about Katherine Swynford from this bio.

Sadly, I was unable to stick it out for the entire book, as I soon became bogged down in the mind numbing details such as the origin of her last name, which seems to go on for many pages, or endless review of her genealogy. A little of this is fascinating, a lot is very distancing, there was no sense of the actual person behind all of those facts.

I may go back again and try to make it all the way through, I do admire the writer for doing all of that research.

Over all this is a good book. It is loaded with facts. It does bog down with a minutiae of dates and spellings at times, which does detract from the story. It is a book that is better read than listened to.

I can read some pretty stultifying history-- I eat Gibbon for breakfast-- but this book takes the gold medal. Do I really need to know where John of Gaunt was between August and September of 1369; given that we have NO IDEA what he did there? Or what the (spurious) modern-day value of every single payment made to Chaucer's wife is? The book amounts to a raw distillation of every fact and detail that can be found in the archives on Katherine, her husband, in-laws and children. The fact is, Katherine left behind very little biographical data, but instead of telling us about the interesting events of her more well-documented contemporaries and descendants, we are subjected to every iota of extant information about this obscure personage. I'm sure the source material would make much more exciting reading!

This book is basically a history book in historical form. Dates, places, names. The information hasn't been woven into a historical story, but was left to the dull historical facts. Judith Boyd is a wonderful narrator and is the only reason I got through the first 3 hours. I have purchased SEVERAL books in this time era and this has to be the most boring of all that I have had the misfortune to listen to.

It was too detailed by all most covering every moment and not enough of the feelings of everyone.