Buckingham novel

All this talk about Buckingham's personality and character (or lack thereof) reminds me: I recently read a few sample chapters (on Kindle) of a 2017 novel, "A Man Who Would Be King: The Duke of Buckingham and Richard III" by J. P. Reedman. It begins with Buckingham in his cell certain that Richard will forgive him but determined to murder him if he doesn't. (Guards take the dagger away.) Then it flashes back to his childhood, emphasizing key events and circumstances that may have led to his egotism and instability as an adult, among them the emphasis placed on his bloodlines and future title by those who reared him, the terrible injuries that led to his father's death and prevented him from taking any part in his son's upbringing, and the belief of those around him that the Duke of York was a terrible enemy responsible for his father's terribly injuries and ultimate death. We see the four-year-old Henry reacting to the York children, who are briefly compelled (along with their mother) to stay in his grandparents' house (Cecily is his grandmother's younger sister). He's not interested in Margaret (a proud girl about ten years his senior), and Richard, though closer to his age, is too solemn and *good* to be interesting, but he's intrigued by the sly and mischievous George, whom he soon comes to hate. Then the tables turn. His grandfather (his only father figure and the only person he loves) is killed in battle and his enmity focuses on the new king, Edward IV, who takes custody of him. Edward is depicted as a lecher (though still at his physical peak) who thinks nothing of letting Henry and his little brother Humphrey glimpse his debauched lifestyle. The sample ends just as Edward is planning to marry Henry to his new wife's younger sister, Catherine.

I'm wondering whether anyone has read this novel and what they think of it. It's flawed in some respects (the point of view, for starters, and some of the dialogue), but it seems reasonably well researched in terms of times, places, and events, and the reader familiar with Richard's early years (all of us!) can't help mentally comparing these two traumatic childhoods (and contrasting the men they produced). Anyway, I do think that the events of Buckingham's childhood (stripped of the fictional color given them by the author) are important to trying to understand him and the motivation(s) for his later actions. The psychological portrait in the chapters I read seems spot on (for Henry, that is--not so much for the York brothers).

I'll probably end of spending the $2.99 (2.34 pounds--what happened to the exchange rate?!) just to see how it depicts Richard. I don't need to guess how it ends.

Interested in what anyone else thinks. Obviously, we're not talking about a scholarly biography, just a psychological portrait.

Carol

From discussions mainly on FB, Janet Reedman seems to be fairly knowledgeable especially about archaeology. I can't vouch for her fiction, since I avoid Ricardian fiction like the plague. There's an awful lot of truly awful stuff "out there" with some authors seeming to feel no obligation to accuracy in portraying a once-living person. I don't see why they just don't make all their characters fictional, rather than trying to ride on Richard's coat-tails.
A J

On Fri, Nov 30, 2018 at 7:12 PM justcarol67@... [] <> wrote:
 

All this talk about Buckingham's personality and character (or lack thereof) reminds me: I recently read a few sample chapters (on Kindle) of a 2017 novel, "A Man Who Would Be King: The Duke of Buckingham and Richard III" by J. P. Reedman. It begins with Buckingham in his cell certain that Richard will forgive him but determined to murder him if he doesn't. (Guards take the dagger away.) Then it flashes back to his childhood, emphasizing key events and circumstances that may have led to his egotism and instability as an adult, among them the emphasis placed on his bloodlines and future title by those who reared him, the terrible injuries that led to his father's death and prevented him from taking any part in his son's upbringing, and the belief of those around him that the Duke of York was a terrible enemy responsible for his father's terribly injuries and ultimate death. We see the four-year-old Henry reacting to the York children, who are briefly compelled (along with their mother) to stay in his grandparents' house (Cecily is his grandmother's younger sister). He's not interested in Margaret (a proud girl about ten years his senior), and Richard, though closer to his age, is too solemn and *good* to be interesting, but he's intrigued by the sly and mischievous George, whom he soon comes to hate. Then the tables turn. His grandfather (his only father figure and the only person he loves) is killed in battle and his enmity focuses on the new king, Edward IV, who takes custody of him. Edward is depicted as a lecher (though still at his physical peak) who thinks nothing of letting Henry and his little brother Humphrey glimpse his debauched lifestyle. The sample ends just as Edward is planning to marry Henry to his new wife's younger sister, Catherine.

I'm wondering whether anyone has read this novel and what they think of it. It's flawed in some respects (the point of view, for starters, and some of the dialogue), but it seems reasonably well researched in terms of times, places, and events, and the reader familiar with Richard's early years (all of us!) can't help mentally comparing these two traumatic childhoods (and contrasting the men they produced). Anyway, I do think that the events of Buckingham's childhood (stripped of the fictional color given them by the author) are important to trying to understand him and the motivation(s) for his later actions. The psychological portrait in the chapters I read seems spot on (for Henry, that is--not so much for the York brothers).

I'll probably end of spending the $2.99 (2.34 pounds--what happened to the exchange rate?!) just to see how it depicts Richard. I don't need to guess how it ends.

Interested in what anyone else thinks. Obviously, we're not talking about a scholarly biography, just a psychological portrait.

Carol