Innocent, The [Import] [Paperback]

Posie Graeme-Evans (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Paperbacks (2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0340895144
• ISBN-13: 978-0340895146
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,880,681 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm passionate about history, particularly European history between, say, the end-ish of the first millennium up until the 1480's. I get bored with the advent of the Tudors (they invented the public service. Can't bring myself to love them for that!)

Landscape moves me - particularly unpeopled landscapes - but I also adore architecture though I tend to lose interest around the Baroque and come back in again, briefly, for Georgian Architecture, then again for the Arts and Crafts movement and the 1920's.

My idea of heaven is to drive around countryside that's unfamiliar to me in Spring or Autumn, through fields and little towns with no particular agenda in mind.

Interestingly the only time my husband, Andrew, and I fight is when one of us is trying to navigate the other in unfamiliar territory - but provided we can stop somewhere beautiful that night, eat something delicious and drink good wine, alls right with the world by morning.

Andrew likes to take pictures, I don't especially. When I'm thinking of a story, its often enough for me to stand and look at something. I try to fix what it feels like to my senses, what it smelt like, for instance; was there sun, was it raining, was it cold? And, that's often enough for the process to begin: the story process.

And whilst story and factual research is a delicious process for me, I'm convinced that human beings are much the same under the skin and always have been - though language, culture, circumstances and environment will always be different.

Family is very important to me. Both my nearest kin and then, also, the extended runners of the family vine that stretch back and forward through time.

Family has taught me that love is possible though it ain't always easy. I see myself as a buoyant pessimist: that helps. The pessimist in me always has a plan B, C and D (I hope!) if things go wrong - television production teaches you that as a failsafe; but the optimist bit makes me hopeful about the future. I've been a lucky woman and I'm deeply grateful for that.

If I have a credo it's one word. Persist. Rudyard Kipling's poem "IF" sums that up for me - each phrase hits like a hammer of truth. And, on the wall of my writing room is another piece of writing that never fails to move me, particularly when I'm feeling defeated or cast down. "Today I put on the sinews of the sky, Flames of the sun, Moon's glitter, fire's astonishment..." and so it goes on. To me, it's all about the acquisition of strength when you need it most.


Warm best wishes,

Posie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What's wrong with a historical "romance" novel?, July 1, 2005

By 

Cherchezlafemme (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Innocent (Paperback)

My primary reading choices for the past two years have been in the romance genre--historical romance in particular--and I picked this book up not because I assumed it was a historical romantic novel, but because I am a fan of well written historical fiction. The romance between Anne and Edward was an added bonus to an already intriguing novel. Most likely because I have a background in the romance genre, I found the sex and the romance not distasteful, in fact finding that it drew a defter hand in concern to the characters and their motivations. And for those who complain that "The Innocent" reads like a "romance" novel, not so, nearly everything that occured in this novel, even down to the detail to the history, is not something commonly found in the historical romance genre if I may be truthful. I recommend this novel to anyone with a love for history, a female protagonist strong for her times, and a warm love story that heightens the tension of the plot. I look forward to reading the second novel.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The smell of a pre-Tudor Rose, June 7, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Innocent (Paperback)

The great thing about this book is that you smell the smells (and there are plenty of them, not all pleasant), hear the sounds, taste the food (not always so great), and experience the sensations (biting cold, strange clothing, vermin)of a period far removed from our own.
Posie Graeme-Evans is obviously obsessed with the minutiae of the period her heroine inhabits. She loves the houses and the countryside. She loves the stuff of Royalty and greatness. She loves the detail of the food and the sanitary arrangements. But above all she knows how to put it all together and tell a good story. This book rocks along. It's no Georgette Heyer shrinking violet. Here be throughly ripped bodices, here be wham-bam sexual mores, here be bloody intrigue and murder. And here be nailbiting jeopardy aplenty for a heroine with a considerable journey awaiting. I hear there are two more Anne books to come. Bring them on Posie! (What a great name for a writer of this genre!!!)

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Saga, May 20, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Innocent (Paperback)

This is a truly sensational read that will transport the reader into the high drama of Edward 1V's 15th century England as seen through the eyes of Anne, a young, beautiful peasant girl.

Anne survives and flourishes despite powerful political forces who killed her mother. At fifteen, she travels to London and finds work for a wealthy merchant. Word spreads of her remarkable talents with healing and medicines. She is summoned to the palace to attend the fragile young queen. In this lonely and unfamiliar world of the palace the stirringly erotic and powerful journey swings into high gear and Anne finds herself entangled in a passionate love affair with Edward, the king.

The Innocent has it all! Definitely one for the shelves at home. The author's research into the 15th century is authoritative and convincing. This book certianly leaves you craving for the next two books in the series.