The fascinating story of Princess Nesta of Deheubarth [present-day South Wales]: her girlhood at Romsey Abbey, life as wife of a Norman knight, Sir Gerald de Windsor; mistress of the English King Henry I; and finally after she is widowed, wife to another Norman knight, Sir Bruno de Hait. She is called by the Welsh the "Helen of Wales". Like Helen of Troy, she too "broke her country's peace and shed her blood." This was a part of history I didn't know much about, and the story made it very vivid: ongoing struggle between Wales and England, then war between England and Normandy. As Sir Gerald says at one point in the novel: "If she were born less beautiful, none of this [tragedy] would have happened." Nesta is the mother of the Fitzgeralds of Ireland. All the main characters were fleshed out. The author treated Nesta sensitively. As I read, I was transported back to 11th-12th century Wales, England, and France through the author's literary gift. Any romance was not maudlin and advanced the story. The 'Historical Sequence' was of note, also the beautiful map of 'The Kingdom of Deheubarth with surrounding territories' drawn by the author's daughter on the front end-papers. ( )

The fascinating story of Princess Nesta of Deheubarth [present-day South Wales]: her girlhood at Romsey Abbey, life as wife of a Norman knight, Sir Gerald de Windsor; mistress of the English King Henry I; and finally after she is widowed, wife to another Norman knight, Sir Bruno de Hait. She is called by the Welsh the "Helen of Wales". Like Helen of Troy, she too "broke her country's peace and shed her blood." This was a part of history I didn't know much about, and the story made it very vivid: ongoing struggle between Wales and England, then war between England and Normandy. As Sir Gerald says at one point in the novel: "If she were born less beautiful, none of this [tragedy] would have happened." Nesta is the mother of the Fitzgeralds of Ireland. All the main characters were fleshed out. The author treated Nesta sensitively. As I read, I was transported back to 11th-12th century Wales, England, and France through the author's literary gift. Any romance was not maudlin and advanced the story. The 'Historical Sequence' was of note, also the beautiful map of 'The Kingdom of Deheubarth with surrounding territories' drawn by the author's daughter on the front end-papers. ( )

http://shelfandstuff.blogspot.com/2010/07/golden-hive-by-eleanor-fairburn.html ( )