Set during beginnings of the English Reformation in the Tudor Era up in Durham County England (Northern Counties) this story follows the life of Alys as she manipulates and is manipulated by people and events. Glimpses of the well known people and events of the period are shown (Queen Catherine's being put aside/divorce, and death; Fall of Anne Boleyn; Jane Seymour's rise and so on) providing reference points and indicating why witchcraft (culminating in the the Anti-Witchcraft Law) was so heavily feared.

This review isn't the easiest to write. Alys initially is a semi-sympathetic main character pushed to and fro by the conditions, events, and people of the time in her own small way - being a small non-important person in terms of the "world stage". She is only nine when the story begins and understandably her worldview is shaped by her experiences and desires/wants. However she also displays some very terrible qualities which include betraying those who've taken time to care and help her after the halfway point in the book make her extremely hard to even like. In some facets this behavior is understandable, but not entirely. However by the time the betrayal events begin to happen she is old enough to know the consequences and know better. Even saving her own skin doesn't justify her actions - at least to me. She does illustrate the baser attributes of human nature cloaked in the concept of superstition and "sin". So it is an abstract commentary on that in its own way.

I'll illustrate some briefly. (spoilers under here)
She is a foundling raised by a local wise-woman who has lost her own lands due to the actions of a malicious local farmer. (for gain)

At the age of about nine she is enticed into a nunnery. She wants this because it is clean, the food is plentiful, and she will be cared for and safe. Not a bad choice for a poverty stricken child. However to do this she must give up her childhood sweetheart (Tom). What is not immediately revealed is that Tom's parents decided that she was unsuitable after her foster mother lost her property and offered (basically gave) her to the Abbess. So that Tom would be free to marry another girl of their choosing.

She takes vows at age fourteen and by now is able to read and write.

The Nunnery is destroyed by fire (English Reformation) by the local lord's son during a night of debauchery and for financial gain. She is the sole* survivor.

Eventually she ends up at the local lord's castle and falls for the young lord**. (after the requisite moral struggle over being a fallen nun) Having turned to "the dark arts" she tries to kill his wife, and then does sacrifice her foster mother in an effort to save her own skin by accusing her of witchcraft (which the woman had naught to do with)

This gets you to about the halfway point in the book.

She gets darker from there but does gain what she wants.. kinda.. sorta.. well "be careful what you wish for" is a good example of the underlying premise of this book.

*not really but she thinks so for much of the book

** Which is another weird twist - as she knew he had destroyed the nunnery (et al) and ruined her life there. How she would even let herself fall fro him - no matter how "attractive" is beyond me. Admittedly it wouldn't have made for much of a plot otherwise but it seems so idiotic and trite. "here I've ruined everything you loved and wanted out of life.. now you desire me! Booyah! (hey I managed to put Booyah into a review! :D )

The setting is done well and illustrates much of the daily conditions of life then. I do think some of the clothing was a bit too fine for the young lord's wife - but it is a work of fiction. Ms. Gregory does well with her setting.

Because of the main character and some of the portrayal I cannot rate this as high as I might have otherwise due to the fact that having endured some of the ordeals she sends others through - blithely I may add - I wouldn't have thought she'd be that cruel. Even with the explanation of her darker nature taking over. Some of the extraneous (not to mention brutal) sex scenes were a bit much too. That last being a purely personal opinion.

2.85 stars

Update: I didn't put this in originally because I wanted to check a few things. Having reviewed part of the novel and looked at some history I'm certain that this novel is a parallel telling of Henry VIII, his wives, and some of the surrounding important figures of the time done in microcosm. Some is a direct parallel, others are more an amalgam or analogical. Hugo is Henry (in composite of all his years), Catherine is Catherine of Aragon (also a slight amalgam of others including Queen Mary if you consider her pregnancy as a reference to her daughter), and Alys (aka Sister Ann) is reference to Anne Boleyn. I think Tom is a reference to Henry Percy, although it could also be a composite of someone from Anne Boleyn or Katherine Howard's past (youthful love). With the events of the English Reformation it highlights the internal and external machinations of the period.
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This is not the usual Gregory book dealing with politics surrounding the King and his wives. This time it�s at a lower, baser level � Alys escapes the hovel she�s living in with the local Wise Woman by becoming a nun. When the nunnery is burned down by the local Lord Hugo, she escapes and becomes a scribe to Hugo�s father Hugh. She starts using her skills in an effort to stay within the castle and become Hugo�s lover in place of his wife Catherine.

She becomes more and more desperate, using more dangerous �dark arts�, only to be haunted both by the wax figurines she uses, the old Wise Woman (who drowns as she predicted) and by the Prioress who insists on continuing to practise the now heretical Catholic religion and can bring added danger to Alys

It�s not a book for the easily embarrassed or offended � there�s lots of sex (in explicit detail) and whether the reader believes in witchcraft or not, it details a dangerous time when women even knowing how to read can be a life threatening time ( )

Clearly not as good as her others. This main character is too selfish to connect to. Philippa adds the element of witchcraft, which takes away from the historical authenticity she usually has. ( )

Alys was 12 when she found an abbey to live in and took her vows to become a nun. At 16, the abbey was burned to the ground during King Henry VIII's reign. She was the only one to escape and went back to live with her adopted "mother" Morach, a healer in a village nearby, because she had nowhere else to go for shelter. Alys is taken to the castle of Lord Hugh and becomes his scribe, but while trying to stay true to her vows in hopes of one day finding a new abbey, she is desperately drawn to Lord Hugh's son Hugo, although he is married. Alys also has some tricks up her sleeve that she learned from Morach.

I hated Alys! Often, when I hate a main character, I have trouble liking the book, but the story drew me in, and I thought it was really good. I thought about lowering my rating slightly because I hated Alys so much, but the draw of the story won out for me. ( )

I have read many of Philippa Gregory's books and thought they were all excellent, but not this one. I was really disappointed in it. I didn't like any of the characters. The book is called The Wise Woman, but there wasn't a single wise woman in it.

The characters all seemed to be the same from start to finish, the main character Ann/Alys did something at the very end that one may say redeemed her, but to me it just seemed like the author needed to wrap things up and it was an easy way out.

Morach, the wise woman of Bowes Moor seemed to change as the plot dictated from wise woman, to witch. First not using black magic and then giving in. But it made no sense. Her treatment of Ann/Alys made no sense either. She treated her badly. When she discovered Ann/Alys was able to tap into supernatural powers, she did little to guide her. Just as she did little to guide her from the time she came under her care.

I'm not sure what the point of the book was supposed to be...that black magic is bad with unintended consequences, that denouncing your religion (Catholicism) brings deadly consequences, that it's a man's world and women will never be able to get what they want... I just don't know.

I read it all the way through waiting for some revelation, but found none. I should have given up on it when I was a quarter of the way through when I first decided it was going no where. ( )