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3 out of 5 stars
By
Linda Lou
on
11-26-13
GREAT BOOK; BAD NARRATOR
Fans of Alison Weir knows that her historical nonfiction works are better than Cliff Notes. She checks, double-checks, and triple-checks her facts. This work is probably a winner in hard copy. However, the narrator totally ruined this for me. For some reason she uses all of these mostly male voices to emphasize at least one word or phrase in every single sentence. Sometimes there's 4 to 5 of these "dramatic flairs" in just one sentence. On top of not sounding very good in a male voice, she uses all sorts of accents , from British to Italian to Spanish - but, with the archaic prose of that era, she sounds like Hitler - punching each word out like people who send text messages in capital letters. This book should have been narrated by a man since most of the source material quoted is from male chroniclers. Narrators Charleton Griffin or Simon Vance or John Lee could have pulled this off successfully. All Maggie Mash did was "MAKE A MASH" from an otherwise great book. Her narration made it hard to follow the story line because her delivery is so discordant. Mash should have just read the book in her own voice which is pleasant and comprehensible. The book is a factual historical account, not a Shakespearian play! I had to stop listening after Part 1 of 3.
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10 of 11 people found this review helpful
3 out of 5 stars
By
Terri
on
12-03-13
Narration Spoils Good Story
Would you try another book from Alison Weir and/or Maggie Mash?
I have enjoyed several of Alison Weir's books in the past, and will read more in the future. This book, however, was spoiled by bad narration. It took me hours to not cringe every time Maggie Mash spoke in male voices with different accents. I agree with a previous reviewer in saying that a man should have been chosen to narrate this book.
With that said, I am glad I sloughed through it. Alison Weir did a wonderful job using the resources that are left to us to give us an intimate view of this Queen. It also offer me an new insight into the mind of Henry VIII.
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2 of 2 people found this review helpful
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful
3 out of 5 stars
By
mollymoon1
on
07-13-15
Hard work
There is very clearly little to write about Elizabeth of York - with the exceptions of maybes and perhaps(es). I'm guessing that Elizabeth Weir needed to write a book of more than 5 pages, which is probably all you would get from factual knowledge of her and so the book is made up of irritating guesses, maybes, would have, perhapses and merely conjectures. Even more irritating was the monetary valuation being recalculated into "being worth £(an obscene amount) today" at every mention of what was paid out to ladies, jesters, dress makers, and for fabrics, food, soap and just about anything to make up page numbers (it drove me potty!!!). The book was tediously long for very little information on Elizabeth of York, making it a pretty pointless book for me. A real shame, as I so thoroughly enjoyed The Wives of Henry the Eighth. I also got the impression that Maggie Marsh was probably just as fed up reading it by the dull set tones of her voice - but she did her best with the subject. Well, wouldn't recommend this book for the subject - but might be OK if you were looking for general information around that time and can suffer the tedium!!!
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6 of 6 people found this review helpful
3 out of 5 stars
By
spanglypink
on
08-20-14
Annoying narrator and could have been edited a lot
Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?
This book was enjoyable in parts but was agonisingly detailed, to the point I nearly gave up half way through! More like an academic and thorough text with huge amounts of referencing rather than a lighthearted listen.
If you’ve listened to books by Alison Weir before, how does this one compare?
First by AW
Would you be willing to try another one of Maggie Mash’s performances?
No - I utterly hated her accents and voices. She pronounced 'diverse' as 'divers' so many times I could have screamed!
If this book were a film would you go see it?
No
Any additional comments?
Would have been better if it was half as long and got to the main themes and points a lot quicker!
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4 of 4 people found this review helpful