Mary Queen of Scots

Hi guys,

Looking for a recommendation on a biography on Mary, Queen of Scots, I'm currently dithering between the Antonia Fraser and the Alison Weir.

Any input would be greatly appreciated!

If I can throw a third idea here: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots by John Guy is pretty good - but I generally like Guy's style.

Other from this - it really depends on which style you prefer - Fraser's books is the older one but it is a good one; Weir's is written in the last few years but it's a bit more dragging and plain boring in places compared to Fraser's (and I usually prefer Weir).

Another is "An Accidental Tragedy: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots" by Graham Roderick. (Attempted editing a few times to try to get touchstones to work without success)

I suspect that this might have something to do with the default choice pointing to a work with 0 copies.

#5: Yes you're right Annie. The default has the names wrong way round. An Accidental Tragedy: The Life of Mary, Queen of Scots is actually by Roderick Graham.

Edited to say I still can't get it to work even when I click on a touchstone which has the names right way round. According to the figures 5 other members have the work as well as me.

I'll see if I can get someone from the Combiners group to help sort this out - if you look at http://www.librarything.com/author/grahamroderick - there is a strange work lagging behind (the one coming from the wrong name) that seems to be the big problem. I cannot get it removed or merged... and it should disappear but it stay.

I like the Antonia Fraser one a lot. I think she's both a better scholar and a better writer than Alison Weir.

I'll second that recommendation for the John Guy book (which is also known as Queen of Scots).

Thanks for your help everyone!

The Alison Weir book is specifically about the murder of Darnley and not a general biography, but I agree it is over long and rather dull in too many places, though I am generally a fan of Weir. I have the Antonia Fraser and John Guy ones on my TBR list, the former having been on there for 4 years. I may try the Guy one first, as it's shorter and, to judge by the evidence of her book on Charles II, Fraser is a bit too romantic.