This book made me think about how you would go about writing a novel based on historical events. 

I imagine that you would build a basic structure from facts: timelines, locations, characters biographies. And then you would fill in the gaps in the structure with narrative and historical details. And then once it was all woven tightly together you would lay on top of your sturdy structure all the novelistic details that would give life and truth to your characters; that would make them walk and talk and breathe and mean something to the reader.

Unfortunately when reading this novel I could still see the bones of the structure poking clumsily through. People did things because that’s what history said they did. People were present at scenes so that they could be seen. Actions happened in a certain order because the timeline dictated that they should.

I knew it wasn’t going to work for me as soon as the historical key note of the yellow ruff was forced clumsily into the first chapter. A box ticked, but nothing more.