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    The Forever Queen: Sometimes, a desperate kingdom is in need of one great woman
    Unavailable
    The Forever Queen: Sometimes, a desperate kingdom is in need of one great woman
    Unavailable
    The Forever Queen: Sometimes, a desperate kingdom is in need of one great woman
    Ebook943 pages16 hours

    The Forever Queen: Sometimes, a desperate kingdom is in need of one great woman

    By Helen Hollick

    4.5/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    A USA Today Bestseller!

    "Hollick does a remarkable job of bringing to life a little known but powerful queen... an absorbing plot that never lags over the course of a fat, satisfying book."—Publishers Weekly

    Sometimes, a desperate kingdom is in need of one great woman

    Saxon England, 1002. Not only is Æthelred a failure as King, but his young bride, Emma of Normandy, soon discovers he is even worse as a husband. When the Danish Vikings, led by Swein Forkbeard and his son, Cnut, cause a maelstrom of chaos, Emma, as Queen, must take control if the Kingdom-and her crown-are to be salvaged. Smarter than history remembers, and stronger than the foreign invaders who threaten England's shores, Emma risks everything on a gamble that could either fulfill her ambitions and dreams or destroy her completely.

    Emma, the Queen of Saxon England, comes to life through the exquisite writing of Helen Hollick, who shows in this epic tale how one of the most compelling and vivid heroines in English history stood tall through a turbulent fifty-year reign of proud determination, tragic despair, and triumph over treachery.

    What Reviewers Are Saying
    "Hollick is a master at making each historic scene come alive in the mind of a character with the most to lose... rich, tasty, sugary sludge of historical fiction... the best the genre has to offer."—Historical Novels Review
    "Brilliant prose, historical accuracy, and rich detail bring this violent era to life. The Forever Queen stands as a well-detailed biographical account of one of England's strongest, most determined queens."— Historical Novel Review Blog
    "A rich and descriptive tapestry of Anglo Saxon history, warring factions, political intrigue and betrayal, brutal violence, and yes, love."—Queen of Happy Endings

    Praise for Helen Hollick
    "A very talented writer."—Sharon Kay Penman, bestselling author of Devil's Brood
    "If only all historical fiction could be this good." —Historical Novels Review
    "Hollick juggles a large cast of characters and a bloody, tangled plot with great skill."—Publishers Weekly
    "Helen Hollick has it all. She tells a great story." —Bernard Cornwell

    (This book was previously published in the U.K. as THE HOLLOW CROWN.)

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSourcebooks
    Release dateNov 1, 2010
    ISBN9781402258862
    Unavailable
    The Forever Queen: Sometimes, a desperate kingdom is in need of one great woman
    Author

    Helen Hollick

    After an exciting Lottery win on the opening night of the 2012 London Olympic Games, Helen Hollick moved from a North-East London suburb to an eighteenth century farmhouse in North Devon, where she lives with her husband, daughter and son-in-law, and a variety of pets and animals, which include several moorland-bred Exmoor ponies. Her study overlooks part of the Taw Valley, where the main road runs from Exeter to Barnstaple, and back in the 1600s troops of the English Civil Wars marched to and from battle. There are several friendly ghosts sharing the house and farm, and Helen regards herself as merely a temporary custodian of the lovely old house, not its owner. First published in 1994, her passion, now, is her pirate character, Captain Jesamiah Acorne of the nautical adventure series, The Sea Witch Voyages, which have been snapped up by US-based, independent publisher, Penmore Press. Helen became a USA Today Bestseller with her historical novel, The Forever Queen (titled A Hollow Crown in the UK) the story of Saxon Queen, Emma of Normandy. Her novel Harold the King (titled I Am The Chosen King in the US) explores the events that led to the 1066 Battle of Hastings, while her Pendragon's Banner Trilogy, set in the fifth century, is widely acclaimed as a more historical version of the Arthurian legend, with no magic, no Lancelot, Merlin or Holy Grail, but instead, the 'what might have happened' story of the boy who became a man, who became a king, who became a legend... Helen is also published in various languages including German, Turkish and Italian.

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    Reviews for The Forever Queen

    4.5/5

    40 ratings15 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Well written but with consistent typographic errors that will need to be ignored.
    • 3/5
      Actually I thought it more than ok, the fact that it was so long made it somewhat tedious. However , it was fascinating to read of these Anglo-Saxons and especially of Emma, a lesser known, but important Queen of England.
    • 5/5
      Fabulous! I did complain that it was a long book, but it was one of the best I've read in a long time. I understand that it is the first of a trilogy--can't wsit for the others!

      2 people found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Intriguing look at a part of English history not very well known. Emma, a girl wedded to a tyranical, ineffective king and worse husband, falls in love with her adopted country and vows to remain forever its Queen. Lengthy, but fast-paced... Lots of court intrigue!

      2 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Emma was 13 years-old when her brother, the Norman King, married her off to the English King Æthelred. Besides her being anointed Queen in her own right, it’s a terrible match that at times humiliates and terrifies Emma. Her husband, who spent his life being ruled by his mother, has no idea what it takes to be a king let alone a decent man. When Danish invaders take control, he capitulates and later dies a sad and very lonely death. Not knowing what will become of her or her children now that the Danish king is in control of her land, Emma offers herself in marriage to Cnut, the Danish King, making him through her the new English King. Her second marriage is much happier than her first and she and her country spend many content years with Cnut as their king.When Cnut dies, Emma fears the loss of her crown and understands deeply the threat her country faces the day that Cnut’s son from his first marriage appears to lay claim to the thrown which he believes to be rightly his. When her son with Cnut, Harthacnut, does not return to England to fight for the crown, she recalls her long abandoned sons from her first marriage, Edward and Alfred, to return with disastrous consequences forcing Emma to once again fight to keep her crown and position as Queen.I usually don’t write such long descriptions in my reviews but I felt this one, being as long as it is (793 pages on my Nook) and the length of Emma’s rule, deserved a longer than normal introduction. Emma, while not a likable character --- she’s disgusted by her husband and her sons from her first marriage, isn’t motherly, is outwardly cruel to her husband and sons (the husband deserving though), and cares in some cases more for her crown and title as Queen above all else --- is intensely interesting. Her life is anything but boring; sad yes, horrid in some cases, lonely, and when she finds happiness there is always something that threatens it (another wife, more sons). While I still don’t know if I liked her, I couldn’t put this book down wondering what would happen to her next.Hollick is a great writer of historical fiction and since reading her Arthurian legend trilogy last year, she’s shot up my list of favorite authors. While there were a few slow parts and an incredible list of characters to keep track of, I still liked this book a lot. She picks subjects and characters whose parts in actual history may have been forgettable but gives them a fictional voice that makes them unforgettable.

      2 people found this helpful

    • 3/5
      I enjoyed this book - it was 'primer' on Anglo-Saxon England and politics for me, subjects I'm not familiar with. It wasn't exactly a page turner, but I found myself wanting to finish it because I wanted to know what happened, as I liked the unlikeable main character, Emma AElfgifu, queen first to AEthelred the Unready, and then Cnut. Ms. Hollick gives us a protagonist who is a child bride of 13, newly-arrived from Normandy with no family, friends, or knowledge of the language in her new kingdom, no tutelage in English customs and traditions. We see her used, abused, and rather than shrivel up and die, the cruelty of life in Eleventh Century England and as a political pawn, a force to be reckoned with, and a woman, foster strength in her as a woman. She despises her sons from her first marriage and dotes on the son and daughter of Cnut. She does everything she can to keep her crown and keep England together as regent during Cnut's many absences. Before Alienor of Aquitaine, there was Emma of Normandy, who had a brief history written of her to celebrate her second husband's reign - some of it fiction, some of it fact, some of the more contentious parts left out.

      What bothered me were the incomplete sentences throughout the story and a sense that I needed to know a bit about Anglo-Saxon England to get into the plot. I powered through, however, and decided it was well worth my time and some additional reading on the period.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      My thoughts:I loved it, the story was so rich in history and details, and it was exactly like a good historical novel should be like. Following the facts, but still inventing and creating a book utterly wonderful.Emma was a truly fascinating woman. Mother to two kings, wife to two kings, stepmother to kings, because yes England saw a lot of kings during her time there. I was enchanted by the story. The first part was about her horrible marriage to Aetheldred, not fit to be king, seeing her distancing herself from her kids was heartbreaking. The second part was about her other marriage and I do hope that it was true that they had a loving marriage. That she finally found joy with Cnut. It was certainly more romantic.This book is filled with history, what else to expect, the book spans 40 years of her life. And I could even start to tell about all the things that happened. There are vikings raiding, there is fighting over the crowns, a lot of times. Treachery, jealousy, kings dying, fighting between English earls, you get the point. There is never a dull moment. Because something is always happening, and when nothing is happening it is just nice to relax and enjoy her life for a bit.Awww, I do love good historical fiction. It just warms me right up. So fun to google later too and discovering more.Recommendation and final thoughts:I am giving this book 4,25 because I could not put it down, even though this was one big book! I would with all my heart recommend it to lovers of historical fiction, and to the rest of you, this is a woman worth reading about. It had everything, but mostly it had her, and I do wonder why not more books are written about her. She certainly deserves a spotlight for her interesting life. The book itself was well written, and was never cluttered with facts or dull. It was a joy to read.Reason for reading:Long ago I read a book by a Swedish author and that was the first time I met Queen Emma, I never forgot her and I even wrote a paper about her in uni, so when I heard about this book I jumped at the chance to read about her again.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      This book is wonderful. You feel the urgency of Dane and English relations. You feel the bareness and vitality of medieval England. Emma is a wonderful character, a woman who will stop at nothing to be queen and retain her rights at such.
    • 4/5
      While a slow read for me, I did enjoy this book. It was interesting to google "Queen Emma" and find the basic information about her life mirroring the framework of the story. The author does acknowledge that relatively little is known of the daily goings-on of her life but the fictional aspects are probably not far from the truth in many cases. For those who are interested in historical fiction this is a very interesting read, although a slow one, I would definitely recommend it.
    • 4/5
      Emma, the youngest sister of Richard of Normandy, has been betrothed to King Aethelred of England as a means to strengthen Richard's relationship with them. She is but 13 when she makes her way by ship to a land she's never known where they speak a language completely foreign to her. Using the advice her mother gave her, Emma prepares for her destiny with as much courage as she could muster. Unfortunately, it quickly becomes apparent that she has more courage and determination than her husband. Aethelred is ineffective and listens to the wrong advisers. He's never been able to move beyond the rather smarmy circumstances that brought him to the throne. Despite the conditions, Emma learns to love her new country. As it turns out, Emma is exactly what England needed.As a lover of historical fiction, I knew early on that I was going to love Emma and enjoy The Forever Queen. Emma is truly a woman who made the most of her life. I know that no matter what was thrown her way she would come out of life victorious. From the moment she met Godwine and his dog, I cared about her and her kingdom. Emma is a gem and I'm glad I got to meet her through Helen Hollick's novel.Although this novel is entitled The Forever Queen, there is more to this story than just what Emma could have told us. I liked how the author interspersed the political intrigue throughout. It kept the story of England at that time moving and even provided a few surprises.If you're a frequent reader of historical fiction, you're familiar with all the drama surrounding giving up your virginity to a royal husband you do not love. Although I feel that Hollick did this well by not dwelling too much on Emma's worries and the "main event," I'm growing weary of them. I'm not sure how that can be avoided when reading books about women and young girls given away in marriage to foreign monarchs, though.My Final ThoughtsLongtime readers of my blog will know that I'm slightly cooler than lukewarm when it comes to fiction about the medieval times. I've often challenged myself to read books from that time period, but even with Helen Hollick's The Kingmaking, I've never been able to lose myself in those books. Both The Pillars of the Earth and The Forever Queen have changed that. They opened my eyes to what can be found in that world and I look forward to going back. I hope that my Emma grows up to be as resilient and courageous as this long ago queen.
    • 5/5
      This was my first read by author Helen Hollick and it won't be the last. A very well written and researched novel. It tells the story of Emma of Normandy and her marriage to King Aelthred and King Cnut of Denmark.Two of her sons, one by each husband, and two stepsons, also by each husband, became kings of England, as did her great-nephew, William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy. A story filled with historic detail in a time when there was a lot of fighting for control of England. Her marriage to King Aethelred was not a happy one but she does fare better with King Cnut. The author has described this turbulent era masterfully and has the reader waiting to turn the next page. Emma's marriages created a strong link to Normandy and England. The novel starts in 1002 with the marriage of Emma to King Aelthred and ends in 1042 when her son Edward ascends the throne as King of England. The only thing I did not like about the book was the names of the characters and I had a hard time keeping them all straight.
    • 5/5
      As most of you who have followed my reviews for any length of time know I am a real European history buff - especially British history. I have to admit, however, that I have never known much about the early history of Britain and very little about Anglo Saxon history. Therefore, I was quite happy to have been given an opportunity to read "The Forever Queen" whose time frame is 1066. Weaving a plot with many diverse characters, warring factions in areas that no longer even exist and a very involved plot takes great skill and dexterity to to well - the reader, after all, must be able to follow along. Helen Hollick has pulled this technical feat off with adroitness. The story of "The Forever Queen" recounts the history of Queen Emma, who, although her story is shrouded in a place where the life of a of women, even a queen, had little value in recounting- is a story that is fascinating, compelling and thoroughly enjoyable and instructive. When people use the word instructive it gives a sense of dryness I suppose but I use the word 'instructive' as one of living history - wonderful readability, enthralling and excellent historical story telling.The author notes that Queen Emma's history is even harder to accurately piece together that that of the later, but better know, Queen Eleanor of Aquaintaine. Emma was of Norman birth - a link between the factions of the Normans and the English. Emma's true name was Alfgifu, but she seems to have preferred to keep and use her given name of Emma for all but State and official documents.Emma was married early, in 1022, to the cruel Aethelred - as a King he was, useless. corrupt and ineffective at ruling. As a man he was even more cruel - I think all in all I would consider him a misogynist. From the author's notes we read that "....Emma is the only woman to have been an anointed, crowned and reigning queen to two different Saxon Kings, yet she is barely known in history...". After the death of King Aethelred II in 1016 Emma re-married , albeit cautiously, to the Danish King Cnut (the Great) had been born about 994 and was crowned King in 1014. His brother, Harald become the King of the Danes at this time as well. . For a fascinating historical synopsis of King Cnut see Wikipedia.For additional details on King Cnut and Queen Emma have a look here. The author, in her very well done Author's notes also comments that during the Victorian times King Cnut's name was anglicized to Canute to sound more realistically English.It is said that King Cnut - who Emma came to love, admire and respect very much had a daughter by a previous mistress that he brought to England to live at Court. Queen Emma had a son King Aetherlred, Edward, who was begotten by more of a rape than an act of love. He was known to torture small animals as a youth and was ultimately sent to the North to become King of the Danes to keep him away from Queen Emma - who he disliked - but Cnut never wanted her to know that truth. Edward ruled the Danes with the ruthlessness by which he had become known. A daughter was born to King Cnut by a earlier mistress whom he brought to England. It is said that Edward allowed her to be drowned in a mill race he watched - it was after this occurence that he was sent to Denmark. As a a side note - Queen Emma is the great aunt of the famous William the Conqueror.As you may be able to guess by now I thoroughly loved this book. It provided me with so much well researched early history of Britain that I had never known about - or had chosen not to read about I suppose. Helen Hollick is, in my opinion, a master story teller who carefully researches her subjects. Most all of her book is true from a historical point of view and, where people, places , names or events have been changed she notes that in her well done Author's notes. For a period in history that has so little factual information written about it I am astounded at what an amazing book has resulted.I think that anyone who is a fan of medieval and/or Anglo-Saxon history owes it to themselves to read this book. Once you start - you will not want to stop. There is, of course, a tremendous amount of history in this book but it also includes information of what sorts of medicines were used by the common people - or the royal ones too for that matter. There is also a entirely strong vision of what the feudal system was like at the time as well as how the continuous wars and political instability of the region had such a deleterious effect on this part of history. This book paints a vivid portrait of the time as well as of a Queen who has had such a lasting effect on the history of England. It's truly an amazing book that I am very grateful to have read! Go get your copy! I can't imagine that you would regret it!
    • 5/5
      I cannot praise this book enough. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for an excellent book. Especially those who enjoy Historical Fiction.
    • 5/5
      Emma of Normandy was born around the year 985, and was married to two different kings of England: Aethelred, called the Unready; and Cnut, the Dane who conquered England after Aethelred proved himself to be completely incompetent as a king. Emma greatly despised her first husband, but she was much more compatible with her second. Emma was also the mother of two kings: Harthnacnut and Edward, called the Confessor; and she was the great-aunt of William the Conqueror. Emma was Queen of England by dint of her marriages, but she emerges as an interesting figure in her own right, especially since she managed to remain Queen even while in exile. A Hollow Crown covers the period of her life from 1002-1042, from her wedding to Aethelred up through the death of Harthnacnut.In addition to her other accomplishments, Emma had a biography written of her—the Encomium Emmae, which conveniently focuses on the reign of her son Hartnacnut and leaves out Emma’s first husband—medieval propaganda at its finest! You have to admire a woman who had the audacity to do such a thing. The author portrays Emma’s relationship to Cnut as a love match, but there was equally a lot of political maneuvering there as well.In terms of reading, I’m a bit deficient in historical fiction set pre-Conquest. Although I know a lot about the late medieval period, I don’t know much about the earlier stuff, and this novel was an entertaining, engaging way to learn about the 11th century as told from the point of view of one of history’s forgotten queens. Emma is a strong, independent woman, but not too modern—I loved the scene where she finally stands up to Aethelred and throws a stool at him! Emma’s definitely not a woman I would have wanted to double-cross! I really enjoyed following Emma’s character development, from shy bride to a woman who, born Norman, became more English than the English themselves. Helen Hollick is a marvelous writer, bringing the events and people of long ago to life. It’s hard to believe that all of this happened nearly a thousand years ago, since the author makes it seem as though the events of this book happened yesterday!As the author says in her note at the end, “I find it very frustrating that the rich, varied and wonderful culture of England pre 1066 has so casually been swept aside by those who wrote of and recorded the post-1066 kings.” It’s said that history is written by the victors, and I think that was especially true of the Normans when they invaded England, sweeping aside Saxon history as though it had never happened. The time of the Danish invasions was a brutal one, to be sure, but I think a lot of good came out of that period as well. A Hollow Crown is a prequel to Harold the King, written before this one but of course set afterwards.
    • 5/5
      I enjoyed this novel about Emma, wife of two kings, and mother of two, in pre-conquest, Anglo-Saxon England. I had just previously read Gildenford by Valerie Anand which covers much of the same ground. I liked Hollick's take on the death of Alfred, the aethling son of Emma, and the massacre of his troops by Harold Harefoot. This account paints a more sympathetic role for Earl Godwine of Wessex.This novel provided my first reading experience re. King Cnut, and his son Harthacnut. Interesting history.