A very belated welcome to my latest book, The Amazing Life of Mary, Queen of Scots. (My laptop has been in computer hospital and I’m too useless to do things like this on my phone.) She did indeed have an amazing life: Queen of Scots at six days old, married to the heir to the French throne at fifteen, Queen of France at sixteen, widowed at seventeen, returned to rule Scotland at eighteen, forced to abdicate at twenty four, imprisoned for nineteen years and executed at forty four. Phew!
An amazing life, but certainly not a happy one. I knew the bare facts when I started to write, but it took a while for it to really sink in just how young she was – I kept looking at my own children and imagining them in those circumstances. So if you pick up this book – and I hope you will – sneak the occasional look at the nearest teenager, before you condemn her for the poor choices she undoubtedly made at times.
The Amazing Life of Mary, Queen of Scots tells Mary’s story through the eyes of Alec and Janet, two young servants in Holyrood Palace who become personally involved in her story as they grow up. It’s illustrated by the wonderful Mike Phillips and is part of the Factastic Stories series published by Floris Books.
Gill Arbuthnott: Children's Author 
Leave a Reply