Sunday Scrapbook #5

[Scrapbook Page Completed April 2010]

Innocent Traitor: A Novel of Lady Jane Grey

Title: Innocent Traitor

Author: Alison Weir

Category: Historical Fiction

Published : UK, 2007

Innocent Traitor tells the story of the life and death of Lady Jane Grey, great-grandaughter of Henry VII, great-neice of Henry VIII, and cousin to King Edward VI (of England), and the Ladies Mary and Elizabeth Tudor.

She was made heir to the English throne by King Edward VI, a fellow Protestant keen on maintaining England's newly established religion. In doing so he disinherited his sisters, the Lady Mary and the Lady Elizabeth, who had stronger claims to the throne than the Lady Jane.

Lady Jane Grey was Queen of England for 9 days, the shortest in English history. She relinquished the crown in favour of the Lady Mary, but was later tried as a traitor and beheaded for treason on Tower Green. She was 16 years old at her death.

Alison Weir tells this story from the points of view of the Lady Jane and those around her who would prove to have the greatest influence on her life. Weir presents the Lady Jane as a shy, unloved eldest daughter of conniving parents who used her as a pawn to secure their own interests, but at the same time was a highly-educated and devoted Protestant revolutionary, determined to do and suffer all that was necessary for her faith, no matter how unfair and misguided that may have seemed both then and now.

Not surprisingly it is easy to feel warmth towards and pity for the Lady Jane, and even though it is known how the story will end, the reader cannot help but harbor a secret hope that the author will, in the spirit of true artistic licence, provide the character with a far happier ending.

It is clear from this book that Weir is a historian, as she writes as one, and Innocent Traitor has an evident feel of academia to it. At times this made the story feel a bit "stiff", but as a whole, Alison Weir has been able to create a depth to her characters that either makes you love them or hate them, and has re-told a story that was and remains in every way a tragedy.

Article: Eco-Friendly Living

This morning I happened to stumbled across an interesting article from Western Australia entitled The A - Z of Eco-Friendly Living.

I thought I'd share it as in amongst the stuff we should already know and be implementing (for example, water-saver shower heads), there are some additional tips that might prove especially helpful, including products on the market that I didnt even know existed.

For example, did you know that Electrolux make an eco-friendly refrigerator? I didnt, and since we're in the need of a new one I'll be hunting down a fridge in their Eco Range when we're ready to buy.

The article also provides links to information websites and eco-friendly online stores, which may also be of interest.