The People's Queen cover art

The People's Queen

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The People's Queen

By: Vanora Bennett
Narrated by: Lucy Scott
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £33.99

Buy Now for £33.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Fourteenth-century England. The country is in turmoil. The King is in debt to the City, and the old order had broken down. The King's mistress, Alice Perrers, becomes the virtual ruler of the country. Disliked and despised by the Black Prince, her strong connections to the merchants make her a natural ally for the King's ambitious second son, John of Gaunt. Together, they create a powerful position for one of his henchmen, Geoffrey Chaucer. In this moment of opportunity, Alice throws herself into her new role and the riches that lay before her....

©2011 Vanora Bennett (P)2011 Oakhill Publishing Ltd
Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Political King Royalty England
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Figures in Silk cover art
The Cutting Edge cover art
The King's Man cover art
Empress cover art
The Lute Player cover art
A Song of Sixpence cover art
The Beaufort Bride cover art
Dynasty 1: The Founding cover art
A Love Most Dangerous cover art
The Girl in the Glass Tower cover art
Swordspoint cover art
Rival to the Queen cover art
The Course of Honour cover art
The Lady of Misrule cover art
Eleanor the Queen cover art
Fatal Throne: The Wives of Henry VIII Tell All cover art

Critic reviews

"If only history was taught by people like Vanora Bennett." ( First magazine)

What listeners say about The People's Queen

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    6
  • 4 Stars
    11
  • 3 Stars
    8
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    3
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    5
  • 4 Stars
    5
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    5
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Vanora Bennett, The People’s Queen

Highly fictional! Vanora Bennett writes well and almost, but not quite, reaches the heights of CJ Sansom and Hilary Mantel. I clung on determinedly until the end and am glad that I did.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Worth persevering with

I listened to this straight after 'Katherine' by Anya Seton and it was intriguing to get a different slant!

This may be one of those books that's better in audio than in the written word, as it has been described elsewhere as 'hard work', and I can imagine that. The narrator makes it 3D, with a very spirited read that conjures up Alice perfectly. Small annoyances: the narrator is not always good at scanning to the end of a sentence or line for clues as to how to start it, so sometimes gets the wrong emphasis or intonation. Also I do find mispronunciations irritating especially when it's just a matter of a Google click to check. But other than that the narrator and the author drew me into Alice's world brilliantly. I especially enjoyed the insights into Geoffrey Chaucer's life and warm personality. This is a fascinating period of English history and the book brings it to life very well.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

The Peoples Queen

What a disappointing book. Instead of the story of the King and John O Gaunt, this is a narrative of the wool trade and its workings. The money they loaned to the King and the interest charged. I have given up listening to it after a couple of chapters as I would rather have heard about the war the wool merchants were funding rather than how the money was raised. Very very boring!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Dull

Any additional comments?

I can't put my finger on why I didn't like this book, but only sheer bloodymindedness got me through it. I've listened to stories read by Lucy Scott before & found them okay, but some of the voices in this reading, particularly those of the children, really annoyed me. Despite growing irritation, I was determined to finish. I kept hoping things would improve, but the story was boring, and the stretching of what historical basis there was, did nothing to improve it. There were two main characters: Alice - irritating & unlikeable, and Geoffrey Chaucer - a dull wimp. I don't like to be negative, but that's almost 19 hours of my life I won't get back.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!