Julia Ponsonby

I really enjoyed this book and entering into the medieval world of Almodis of La Marche at the various courts she kept in France and Spain. This very strong woman lived in a world very different from today - one in which noble women were used as pawns in the marriage market of a Europe where the boundaries we know today had yet to take so fixed a form and where the provinces where frequently battled over by one Count or another. Almodis is portrayed as a highly capable woman - someone who knew her own mind, loved books, loved her children and loved life. She was determined to live life to the full and for the benefit of others even if it meant having to put up with a really horrible husband for a while! In the early part of the middle ages women were educated and often ruling as regents or in their own right - this book gives a sample of the powerfulness of women before the concept of male dominance via primo-geniture became the norm and women became restricted by a concept of feminity that stressed supporting their husbands and serenely getting on with their embroidery. Anyone who has enjoyed the books of Phillipa Gregory and Alison Weir will very likely enjoy Tracey Warr's exciting re-imagining of the real-life story of Almondis and her faithful maid Bernadette. There is humour and human drama in the telling as our heroine moves from being Lady of Lusignan, Countess of Toulouse and finally Countess of Barcelona - giving birth to 12 children on the way.