The Queen's Lover

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Ms. Gray has created fully developed, flawed and complex characters in a way that would probably not have been possible within the confines of biography. [She] conjures up a world she knows well, in riveting detail. [ The Queen’s Lover is] a feat of research and imagination.”—Moira Hodgson, The Wall Street Journal I go through torture and pain in terms of love. I think that’s my natural gift, so that’s all I want to do in my songs. I just want to put myself across in my songs in the best way I can,” Mercury said, quoted in the book Freddie Mercury: A Life in His Own Words. One of his most haunting break-up songs was “Love of My Life,” from the album Night at the Opera . It is believed to be about his former lover Mary Austin. “It’s fair to say she was the love of Freddie’s life,” said May. This hatred, or disdain, IS indeed the problem with The Virgin's Lover: Gregory doesn't like ANYONE she is writing about. Lord Dudley is a selfish conniving bastard. His wife Amy is infuriatingly annoying and simpering, and the picture of a stereotypical raving woman: you start off with a wealth of sympathy to give her by virtue of her situation, that of a woman in love with a cheating man she cannot leave, but by God if she doesn't throw it all out the window and try her very best to make you want to strangle her by her bodice laces. And Elizabeth is, of course, to Gregory, the devil in a woman's shape. But Dudley is already married, and his devoted wife Amy will never give him up, least of all to an upstart Protestant Princess. She refuses to set her beloved husband free to marry the queen; but she cannot prevent him from becoming the favorite and the focus of the feverishly plotting, pleasure seeking court. du Plessix Gray skirts an examination of Antoinette's character by focusing upon Fersen, her putative lover. That she loved Axel von Fersen is an indisputable fact. What is less certain is whether they consummated their romance between the sheets. There are those who will never be convinced, much like the Ricardians who would have to see his fingerprints upon a pillow before allowing he might have had a hand in the fate of the Princes (spoiler alert: he did).

Francine du Plessix Gray then grew up in New York City, and was naturalized a U.S. citizen in 1952. She was a scholarship student at Spence School. She attended Bryn Mawr College for two years, and in 1952 received her B.A. in philosophy from Barnard College, NY. Elizabeth is rather a secondary character when all is said and done, so if you're looking for an Elizabeth-centered novel, this isn't quite it. It's more about Dudley, and the two women who loved him concurrently. All of our upcoming public events and our St Pancras building tours are going ahead. Read our latest blog post about planned events for more information. The Queen's Lover is the fictional memoirs of Count Axel Von Fersen, memoirs he wrote later in his life. These memoirs are being prepared for publication posthumously by his sister, so you get the odd chapter here and there where she inserts notes to clarify certain events and what not. I could waste time and words giving you a run down on the historical events this novel covers, but the book blurb tells you everything that happens and you could just read that and be done with it.

Media Reviews

As their relationship deepens, Fersen becomes a devoted companion to the entire royal family. Roaming the halls of Versailles and visiting the private haven of Le Petit Trianon, he discovers the deepest secrets of the court, even learning the startling erotic details of Marie Antoinette’s marriage to Louis XVI. But his new intimacy with Marie Antoinette and her family is disrupted when the events of the American Revolution tear Fersen away. Moved by the cause, he joins French troops in the fight for American independence.

By the time of Anne’s accession in 1702, she and Churchill had been together for 29 years. They had supported each other through the turbulent years of the Glorious Revolution and the combined death of 20 of their children. Anne’s loyalty to Churchill had even driven a wedge between her and her sister, Queen Mary II, and although both women were married—Sarah to John Churchill, later Duke of Marlborough, and Anne to Prince George of Denmark— their relationship was much more than that of monarch and servant. Don’t remember anything about the French Revolution from high school? This is one of those books where you’ll learn – or relearn – history effortlessly, as du Plessix Gray spins the affair of Marie Antoinette and a Swedish count into riveting drama.”– Entertainment WeeklyLouisa “Markswoman” Mark was born to Grenadian parents who had settled in Ladbroke Grove, west London.