The White Queen - Phillipa Gregory

This is the first of Phillipa Gregory's books about the Plantagenet's and tells an interesting story of a time about which I knew very little.  The story takes place from about 1460 when Edward IV married Elizabeth Grenville, secretly.  The story explores the relationship between people hell bent on gaining power over the English throne, and focuses on the relationships between Edward, George, and Richard, three brothers whose fight for power destroys their family.
The characters are well drawn, and the story ends with the accession of Richard III to the throne, and the inevitable destruction of the family.  The potential for witchcraft is also involved, as Elizabeth tries hard to manipulate the succession as Henry VII takes the throne and her eldest daughter as his wife.

World Without End - Ken Follett

"Does it need to be this thick?" The question a friend asked me about this book. It's the second about medieval Kingsbridge by this author, and I sort of think it does need to have this length in order to create a world that we don't really share or have experienced. It describes a complex society and places over a 30 year timespan, during which time people come and go, the protagonists are successful, fail, and can become successful again. There are evocative descriptions of the plague and its impact on society - so much worse than bird flu, and mixed in with religious concerns about its impact and those it struck down. Above all its a book about human nature and the resilience that so many people have to adversity. There's a lot in the book about unfairness, and the arbitrariness of life. A bridge collapses - some people live, some die.
I read the previous book in the set, Pillars of the Earth when in Ghana, where I'd been staying in a village on the coast. There is a clarity about society's structure that is apparent there, and which used to be apparent in English villages too - people knew how the hierarchy of society worked. That is true in Ghana now - there are village Chief's and the Queen Mother (not related). These two people represent a structure and can intervene in disputes and so on. We don't have that same perspective any more - and for very good reasons, but it does create some visible understood framework in which the Ghanaian village operates and of which our youth of today have no experience.
So I've enjoyed both books, and their evocation of a past time through which I've enjoyed contemplating and thinking about our social mores now.

Somewhere Near the End: Diana Athill

Far from being gruesome, this book reflects on life from the 89 year old's standpoint and reflects on a long and interesting life, unconventional, thoughful, and stimulating. It's rather difficult when you haven't got to this stage in life not to look at it with foreboding, and have a recognition that sphere's of influence reduce, physical skills and competences wane, and you become more inward looking and feeling. Diana Athill as seen here has written a book that puts this in some perspective, and leads me to the conclusion that if you choose you can go into old age being 'more of the same'. If you've always been half-pint empty, you're probably not going to change now! But you could go on being half-pint full if you choose. What is clear from the book, is that pleasures can be intensely enjoyed, the world still is a beautiful place, and people in your life can go on being a welcome and positive joy. Diana's mother's final words were 'It was absolutely sublime.' Perhaps that's a sentence we should all aspire to utter, whether we're near the end or not.