Explore our new BookBrowse Community Forum!

Book Summary and Reviews of The Forever Queen by Helen Hollick

The Forever Queen by Helen Hollick

The Forever Queen

Sometimes, a desperate kingdom is in need of one great woman

by Helen Hollick

  • Readers' Rating:
  • Published:
  • Nov 2010, 656 pages
  • Rate this book

  • Buy This Book

About this book

Book Summary

Married to a king incompetent both on the throne and in bed, Emma does not love her husband. But she does love England. Even as her husband fails, Emma vows to protect her people - no matter what. For five decades, through love and loss, prosperity and exile, Emma fights for England, becoming the only woman to have been anointed, crowned, and reigning queen to two different kings, the mother of two more, and the great aunt of William the Conqueror.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

"The scope is vast and the cast is huge, but Hollick remains firmly in control, giving readers an absorbing plot that never lags over the course of a fat, satisfying book." - Publishers Weekly

This information about The Forever Queen was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Write your own reviewwrite your own review

Sandra H.

The Forever Queen by Helen Hollick
Most historical novels about British royalty are set later than the early Anglo-Saxon period. This one takes place during the eleventh century and features "Emma," daughter of Richard I of Normandy,whose brother Richard II marries her to King Aethelred II (also known as Aethelred the Unready) who is 20 years older than the 13-year-old Emma in 1017. Emma produces two sons and a daughter for him but lives a wretched life. She is tough, however, and learns how to survive the life fate has given her. When her husband finally dies, she has no choice but to marry Cnut, the Viking invader who eventually rules Norway, Denmark and England. And this is only a third of her remarkable life.

While this fascinating story centers on Emma, it also tells us much about the early history of an often weak and unsettled England during a time when the lives of royalty and the upper classes were often filled with violence and danger while the peasants suffered for the foibles of their leaders. Hollick's characters are fully developed; her descriptions beautifully rendered and the violence of the times--burnings, beheadings, eyes gouged out--described in detail. Yet, the characters also loved and cared for their families and the people they ruled. Helen Hollick helps us understand this violent time while telling a rousing good story of a woman who became the mother of two kings and the great-aunt of William the Conquerer.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Author Information

Helen Hollick

Helen Hollick lives in northeast London with her husband, daughter and a variety of pets, which include several horses, cats, and two dogs. She has two major interests: Roman/Saxon Britain and the Golden Age of Piracy - the early eighteenth century.

More Author Information

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

More Recommendations

Readers Also Browsed . . .

more historical fiction...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: Graveyard Shift
    Graveyard Shift
    by M. L. Rio
    Following the success of her debut novel, If We Were Villains, M. L. Rio's latest book is the quasi-...
  • Book Jacket: The Sisters K
    The Sisters K
    by Maureen Sun
    The Kim sisters—Minah, Sarah, and Esther—have just learned their father is dying of ...
  • Book Jacket: Linguaphile
    Linguaphile
    by Julie Sedivy
    From an infant's first attempts to connect with the world around them to the final words shared with...
  • Book Jacket
    The Rest of You
    by Maame Blue
    At the start of Maame Blue's The Rest of You, Whitney Appiah, a Ghanaian Londoner, is ringing in her...

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Pony Confidential
    by Christina Lynch

    In this whimsical mystery, a grumpy pony must clear his beloved human's name from a murder accusation.

Who Said...

In war there are no unwounded soldiers

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

F the M

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.