Well written, interesting, both accurate history and fiction combined welli have to hand it to miss gregory on this book it was far from what i thought it would be like. in the mini series we only get to see margart as an angry women who is set at all cost to have her son henry tudor as the king of england. she is an holier then though person who uses god to get her way. you really dont care much for her watching the mini series. in the book we see how margart became the women in history. at a young age she knew she wanted to be a nun and wanted to learn and go off to live in an convet. being a women in this times her choices did not matter. she has an arranged married at the age of 5, that her mother breaks off when she is 9 so that she can be betrothed to the tudor blood line and be the mother of a future king. at nine she is told she will marry a tudor at the age of 12. at 12 she is sent off to marry edmund tutor and to bare him sons to be line for the english throne. edmund is close to 30 and only wants margret to have sons with. she has a son after edmund is killed and she is barely 13. it is a difficult birth and she nearly dies. her mother then informs her she is to marry again in one year to another man in his 30s, i think henry stafford does love margart, but she is unable to recieve that love because she fills her divine mission from god is to have her son become the next king. she is forced to leave her son with jasper, her deceased husbands brother, whom she does come to love but can not express it due to she has no rights. not even the right to raise her son. stafford is good to margart even though she continues to cross him, a peacefull man at every turn to help jasper and to over throw the current king edward. when jasper is sent into exile her son is given to a york to raise, again margart has no say in her boys life. she prays hours daily and is devoted in her work that she is like joan of arc and it is her holy duty to deliver england from the yorks and back into lancasters hands. when lord stafford is killed fighting for york, margart enters into yet another marriage with lord stanly in hopes of him helping her to get into the kings good graces and getting her son back from exile where he is living with jasper. she is still plotting to get him on the throne. she feels that queen elizabeth uses her looks and is a witch and has trapped her husband into marriage and is envious of her , her entire life. in the end when king edward dies and king richard steals the crown from edwards boys. this giving us the story of the princes of the tower. after reading alot of history i do feel richard did not have anything with these boys deaths, but that margart ordered their deaths so her son would move up the chain to the crown. she used it as gods will. princess elizabeth is promised in marriage to henry tudor and as history is he know that tudor does defeat richard and becomes the first king of the tudor reign of england. we learn so much more about margart in this book and at times you feel so sorry for her, yet she steals that pity back by using god to ok her evil plotting acts on others. she killed two innocent children just so her son could be king and said it was gods will. i really enjoyed this better look into how margart became the person we saw in the white queen. i cant help but wonder if she had been allowed to raise her son and be with jasper would she still have hated as much and been so jealous of elizabeth. would the young prince edward had died or would he have become king. how would history of changed if we had never had the tutor reign. loved this book. if you want to know more of margart you will enjoy this book."The Red Queen" is the second in Philippa Gregory's "The Cousins' War" series, following the Plantagenet line as she previously did so successfully with the Tudors.As in most of her other books, she focuses on the journey of one woman through the courtly intrigues of England's royal fortunes and royal families. For me, she has yet to outshine her own successes, "The Other Boleyn Girl" and "The Boleyn Inheritance." I did like this volume more than its companion, "The White Queen.The narrator of the "The Red Queen" is Margaret Beaufort. We begin with her as a child, a child soon to be wed for political gain. The chapters of Margaret's transition from child to wife to mother are conflicted, watching a little girl forced into her marriage bed with a man she barely knows and then enduring a very difficult pregnancy. Her role as brood mare is clear. Early in the book, Margaret's faith, her saints' knees, her fascination with Joan of Arc, add up to an emotional story. She is still half a child, dreaming that her son, a Tudor, will become the King and that she will sign her name, Margaret R, Margaret Regina, the King's Mother. that she loses this husband early is a seeming blessing to Margaret.Gregory writes well of Margaret's fierce love and ambition for this child and the growing influence of her brother-in-law, Jasper Tudor. Eventually, the plague takes her husband, and Margaret remarries to Sir Henry Stafford, she is astounded to be treated well, to have a man who is gentle with her and thinking of her comfort. If only she could take him to heart in the same way. . .Gregory knows the voice when she writes of envy, jealousy, and selfishness. As Margaret's machinations grow, she endangers her husband, her son, and herself. She is dedicated only to the Tudor line, the idea of becoming the Tudor King's Mother. She cannot abstain from her own desires, involving herself in rebellion and revolt to no good avail and to the detriment of thousands of men at war.She remarries after losing Henry to a battle wound. This part of the book is also well-written, with Margaret's pride and selfishness overwhelming and trivializing Henry's condition. Even as he lies dying, she is plotting. (History is history; this should not be seen as a spoiler, I hope)Her next marriage takes her son closer to the throne; the little Princes, Prince Edward of Wales, and Richard III the heartbeats between "her boy" and the throne. How much can she do with her fellow conspirators to destroy what remains between her and her dream?The battle scenes are well choreographed. The simple beauties of the English countryside contrast with the excesses of human contrived fashion and beauty at court and disgusting gore in mud and blood on the battlefield.Gregory puts us into the shoes of a flawed protagonist and untangles the web of York vs. Tudor history.I found a few odd comparisons (Thomas Gray's line, written in 1742 "a flower that wastes its sweetness in the desert air" and "what's done is done" from Shakespeare's "Macbeth,") and the repetition of the word "turncoat" was driving me a little crazy in the latter third of the book, but still, I admit it. I love the ease of reading history I already know through the voices Gregory creates.If you like historic fiction bases on facts (faction) the this is a brilliant series. There are 6 books and, although each book stands alone, if you are going to read all 6 you should/must read them in the right order. Lady of the Rivers, White Queen, Red Queen, Kingmakers daughter, White Princess and Kings Curse. I found each difficult to put down. They all look at the same period of history but each from the view of different women of the time. They are a brilliant read. Each is a great story, brilliantly told, based on historical facts and not a little imagination. Highly recommended.A Magnificent book as is only ever expected from the wonderful writer historian, Philippa Gregory. This book shows just how hideoussome of those people were, who took it upon themselves to live on the invented term "Royalty" a fallacy made on greed and other peoples blood, sweat, tears, torture and murder. I purchased this book on Kindle and listened to it in one go as I have to rest before going into hospital for a major operation so have lots of time. I had just finished reading a book about Margarets rival the Plantagenet Margaret Pole who took ten hits of the Sword to chop off her head at Tower Hill, plus the first book, 'The White Queen'. All quite gripping reading learning about what selfish people will go through and subject others in order to fufil their fanatical fantasies of being 'Royal'. They all needed a course of intense therapy with a team of psychiatrists. My collection of Philippa Gregory books grows and Amazon is the perfect place to find her work. I enjoy the option of audiobooks listening to a full cast or a good narrator bringing the work alive as well as actually reading the book myself. It takes a few days for the books to arrive but with Kindle, you choose your book and download within seconds. My days of resting are being filled with some fascinating historic reading.The Red Queen is #2 in Philippa Gregory's Cousins War series about the Wars of the Roses. The heroine is Lady Margaret Beaufort, who I had vaguely heard of but didn't know much about, other than she was a tough old biddy who gave birth to the future Henry VII at the age of thirteen.I am a huge fan of Philippa Gregory. Ironically, my favourite books are about the real-life historical characters I'd never much cared about prior to reading their stories, such as Katherine of Aragon in The Constant Princess and Mary I in The Queen's Fool. I suppose that is part of Philippa Gregory's skill - making the reader feeling empathy for a person who was probably unlikeable in real life.The story is told in the first person from Margaret's point of view, apart from a couple of battle scenes. We first meet her as a very pious, precocious child. Even at the age of nine she knows she wants to devote her life to God, after becoming obsessed with Joan of Arc. Unfortunately, her sole duty is "to bear a son and heir ... a boy for the House of Lancaster" and she is soon packed off to Wales to marry Edmund Tudor.The plot deals mainly with Margaret's conviction that it is God's will her son should become King of England and her obsession with ensuring it happens. Unlike some of the other more unfortunate characters, Margaret's life is never really in danger, despite all her double-dealing and plotting. But the story is a fascinating read none-the-less, and there is the occasional humour in the way the characters, particularly Margaret's husband, tolerate her obsession. This is funny while Margaret is a child but around the halfway mark, as she grows older, you realise how much her obsession is hurting those around her. Towards the end of the story it is clear she has become absolutely ruthless, although there is a point when you feel the penny has finally dropped: "At last I recognise that the sin of ambition and greed darkened our enterprise." But then it is revealed that rather than admit to any failings of her own character for her troubles, Margaret is actually blaming her hated rival, Elizabeth Woodville!I loved this book and look forward to reading the others in the series.I read this book in hardback when it first came out and didn't particularly enjoy it. In fact I couldn't remember any of the content - very surprising for me, and I was left asking myself if I'd actually read it at all. Having read some really mediocre historical fiction recently, I've been revisiting Philippa Gregory's books when they come up on special offer, as she is a good writer, does her research and brings her characters to life. This time round I was held captive by the story and could hardly out my kindle down!I liked the way Gregory developed the character of Margaret, her thoughts and speech reflecting her 12 year old self at the beginning of the book, maturing into her adult self as the story developed. What it must have been like to have been so certain of her own, and her son's, destiny. And the certainty that her wishes were God's will (and the clever inference that this might have been vice-versa). Life for a pious medieval mother. What focus and determination Margaret Beaufort must have had.Two minor omissions as far as this reader was concerned. The first was that half way through the book there was a 10 year break in the story line; I would have been interested in reading more about Margaret's life serving Elizabeth Woodville, even if it was just a short chapter. The second was that, as the focus of the story in the final chapters moved towards Henry Tudor, I felt I didn't really know much about him as a character, and I was left wondering what he was really like; he didn't spring off the pages as much as other key figures.Looking forward to picking up the next story in this sequence.What a wonderful character Phillipa Gregory made, weaving much fantasy conversation and so-called pious thoughts around a woman self-obsessed by her religious fervour and her determination to put her son Henry on the throne of England.It would have been horrible to live in those days of near constant war and deceit.I found this book enthralling - and I must admit that prior to beginning to read PG's series on the Plantagenet era that I had always avoided reading about the period, always believing it to be too boring to be bothered with - how wrong was I???A fantastic action packed book, a delight to read, and now I can't wait to download the next in the series!