The court of King James I seems to be the latest historical place-to-be, and we are there with Lady Frances Gorges, a little known and little-known-about young woman. There is nowhere she’d rather be than her beloved Longford house, roaming the gardens collecting plants. It is a time of great turbulence in England, as James begins his persecution of the Catholic faith, and his obsession with hunting out witchcraft.
Frances is a skilled herbalist and in danger of falling foul of this new mania, and must keep her skills hidden from those at court who wish her ill, while tending the eight-year-old princess Elizabeth. As the intrigue unfolds, she cannot be sure if the young courtier who weaves his way into her affections is friend or foe. Ultimately Frances finds herself alongside the notorious gunpowder plot, which puts her in terrible danger.
The historical detail is convincing and well outlined by Tracy Borman who is an accomplished historian already. I like fictionalised books about real people, because I want someone to paint a picture for me of how it felt to be in that woman’s shoes, especially if her life was extraordinary in some way. The trouble with Frances is that although she existed, we are told in the author's note that virtually nothing is actually known about her, so everything we are asked to believe in the story, everything that made me think, ‘oh, I didn’t know that happened’, actually didn’t happen after all (or not to her anyway). I found myself a bit disappointed for that reason, and to me she felt like a witness to other people’s events, rather than the agent of her own story. But it seems the character of Frances is set to continue into a second book, so perhaps she’ll get into her stride.
