I listened to the audio version of this book. Despite the somewhat monotonous tone of the narrator, which might be offputting for some, it is worth reading through. Not least because it serves to challenge a lot of popular misconceptions that have grown up around Lady Margaret recently- propogated by works of popular fiction like 'The White Queen' TV series and the novels it was based on.

Beaufort does not equal evil, or mother of Henry Tudor, super evil. Margeret was actually known as being a pious Lady- and does not seem to have been a natural schemer. During most of the period of the Wars of the Roses she seems to have kept her head down, and genuinely cared for her second, husband Henry Stafford.

Certainly she was dedicated to looking after the interests of her only son- whom she gave birth to at barely 14, but it is, in some sense, hard to condemn a woman for being a dedicated mother in such circumstances. Even in the midst of civil war, when her son, as rival claimant, was seen as an enemy of the state.
She does seem to have made some attempt at rehabilitation, negotiating a marriage to Elizabeth of York even before her father Edward IV's death.

Most of all, this was an interesting apprisal of a life and career of a fascinating woman- a woman subject to many extreme and unenviable circumstances, who usually seems to have come out fighting. Also a useful counter to the popular 'Tudor evil, Yorkists good' conception of the period, providing a more nuanced view.
I am very tempted to purchase the Kindle or Paperback edition to add to my library. ( )

Very informative about a woman we only know much about later in life. I had no idea about some of the things that were in thia book. ( )