Reviews for A Simple Tapestry

The average rating for A Simple Tapestry based on 2 reviews is 2 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-05-02 00:00:00 Teng Lee Based on the title of this book, I thought I would be reading about how royal mistresses influenced politics, religion and society in general. Instead I found out that everyone - EVERY single person mentioned in this book - was negatively impacted by their parents and acted the way they did because of their parents. It was CRAZY. By the fourth or fifth mention of the absentee father and cold mother, I was actually laughing out loud. Ok, sure, your childhood influences you but to have it be the primary factor in all the behavior mentioned is this book was ridiculous. I imagine the author believes cold mothers cause autism too. Granted, the author was good at summarizing king's love lives. The chapters were like well written wikepedia entries. Heavy on facts, light on depth. I didn't learn anything new about anyone. It was odd. Anyone picking up this book will probably already have a working knowledge of the facts of the mistresses and the kings who loved them. So the fact that this book just rehashes the general outline of these affairs was pointless. I also wondered at the choices of the kings. Some were obvious - Henry VIII, Charles II and Edward VIII. But William IV? Why him? Why not write about Edward II and his male lover Piers Gaveston and how having a male mistress impacted his rule? Or write about Henry II and how his mistresses made his wife so angry she ended up leading a rebellion against him? There are several examples of how a king's private sexual choices impacted England that are more obvious choices than those of William IV or the current Prince Charles. Just....odd. Like so much of this book. Odd.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-02-05 00:00:00 Jon Stewart This would have to be one of the most annoying books I have ever read. The author is a psychiatrist and he never lets us, or his subject matter forget it. On every page is a Freudian analysis (if one could call it that) of the royal under discussion - he takes mistresses because of his poor relationship with his mother which he then acts out. Psych 101! But the mistresses don't get off lightly either: they have affairs because of poor relationships with their fathers. There is little salacious detail so don't expect book this to reveal any secrets. It would have benefited from tighter editing but I suspect the editor was a mate because the author dedicated the book to him. The publisher has cut costs by using a very small font and pale ink. Not an easy read in bed by bedside lamp. I've given this 2 stars - 1 1/2 for the mistresses and 1/2 for the author.