This is half-pie.

Information:

• Eleanor: April Queen of Aquitaine, by Douglas Boyd.
• From Wellington City Libraries, Wellington.

My usual trick to find random-but-good stuff to read in the biography and history sections of the library is to have a look at the recently returned section first. Which is how I came across this, a highly readable account of the life of one of England’s most famous/notorious queens.

I’d been bored rigid watching The Lion in Winter, a Patrick Stewart / Glenn Close adaptation from theatre of a play about the interminable wars between Henry, Eleanor’s second husband, and her and her three sons. In contrast though this book brought the era and the people to life so strongly that I had to read until very late in the evenings during this last week. Thoroughly recommended.

And now I can sleep.