Whitcoulls Recommends: My Name is Emilia del Valle and The Pretender - The Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin

My Name is Emilia del Valle by Isabel Allende. Any new book from the wonderful Isabel Allende is a treat, and this is no exception. It begins in 1866 when an Irish nun becomes pregnant after an encounter with a wealthy Chilean who turns his back on them, and the baby and her mother have to fight for their place in the world. The child, Emilia del Valle, eventually becomes a writer and a journalist, and is eventually sent to cover the Chilean civil war along with a friend and colleague, Eric Whelan. There is history here as well as the romance, which makes it truly fascinating along with the romance. It was an extraordinary time. 

The Pretender by Jo Harkin. Set in 15th Century England at the juncture between the Plantaganets and the Tudors, this is fiction which is fun, bawdy, historically interesting and never takes itself too seriously. It tells the story of a young boy who through his lifetime is known by a series of names. Firstly, he’s John Collett, growing up on a farm from which he’s one day uplifted by a couple of noblemen, becoming known as Lambert Simnel and told that he is in fact the 17th Earl of Warwick and will challenge King Henry 7th for the Crown. I loved it. 

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