An absolutely fascinating examination of the rule of women of England/Great Britain. Maureen Waller brings to life the six women, all remarkable in their own unique ways, who stepped up to sit on the throne. Each faced their own respective challenges, and Waller delved into the details of how they managed their subjects (few of which were keen on being ruled by a woman) and survived everything thrown at them.

The book started out a bit slow with the section about Mary I, I admit. The biographical information about her seemed to drag on a bit unnecessarily, while the other sections all seemed to assume that the reader would have the basic knowledge about their subjects. Once Waller got into explaining Mary's method of ruling, however, the book became a lot more interesting. Just have to get through Mary's background first.

A stellar book for anyone interested in the rule of women, or women's history in general.

A fairly unbiased and easy read. Anyone who is interested in the English monarchy will find this book enjoyable and informative.

presents brief studies of the reigns of the six women who were actually sovereigns of England (not consorts, but actually rulers in their own right). It was an interesting and occasionally thought-provoking read. But I found the author's apparent judgmental attitude toward several of her subjects very off-putting at times.

Still, the author did make an effort to examine each woman as a ruler, as well as a person, which is an intriguing perspective. She also makes an effort to examine each of them in the context of their time, which does give the reader a reasonably good understanding of the particular challenges faced by each of them.

This was pretty good, but I wish there had been more information about Mary II and Anne. I was already fairly familiar with Mary I and Elizabeth I, but there were some interesting things that I didn't know. I found the parts about Victoria and Elizabeth II very informative as I didn't too much about them previously.

I'm not particularly interested in England's history after the House of Tudor comes to an end (and even then, I care little for Elizabeth I - particularly later in her reign), but I picked this up in the interest of seeing how each of the very different queens in turn ruled their kingdom. Comparisons are made throughout the text, but mostly between Mary I and Elizabeth I, then Mary II and Anne, then Victoria and Elizabeth II. It is more of a history of each reign on its own, rather than a study of female rule as the title might imply.

Naturally the majority of the book is devoted to Mary I, Elizabeth I and Victoria. The history is decently researched in regards to the Tudor sisters, though I can't comment with any authority on Mary II, Anne, or Victoria, as I know nothing about these periods in England. Even with Elizabeth II ruling in my lifetime, I still learned some things about the dysfunctional House of Windsor - and found perhaps even more reason to dislike Charles. Seeing the Queen's children described as selfish, spoiled brats comes as little surprise, but referring to Princess Diana as unstable? That seems inaccurate.

In fact, as I mentioned in an update, the author does this often. She takes a flaw and expounds it, eager to throw around all sorts of negative adjectives for the queens, their husbands, children, advisors, etc. I'd be surprised to learn that the author enjoyed researching and writing this book, as she rarely seemed to say many positive things about any of her subjects.

Not a bad little biography of the only queens to have ruled England. Gives a little refresher about who they were and what they dealt with, and has a nice little works cited/works reviewed list in back in case people are interested.

This tells the stories of the six queens of England: Mary I, Elizabeth, Mary II, Anne, Victoria, and Elizabeth II. Six queens doesn't seem a lot for 1000 years of monarchy!
It's detailed and informative but Waller keeps it fairly concise.
I wish there had been an overview of the period between Anne and Victoria because it's quite a jump between them and it's difficult to understand the context.
This book is a great starting off point for more in depth research into the women's lives.

An excellent, easy-to-read account of England's six reigning queens.

I like that this book focused more on the relationship of the Queens to their throne. Each monarch viewed the monarch in her own distinct way - and thus ruled in her own way. It helps that I've read a bit on each Queen and so knew enough of the basics that I wasn't lost. Some background was helpful because each reign is touched on relatively lightly.

However, you do get a good sense of each Queen's strengths and weaknesses. Their attitudes towards their role and the struggle they each had to face: being a woman in a 'man's job' in a time when such a thing was seen as an anomaly.

My one qualm was sometimes the writing seemed a bit disjointed. A paragraph would change topic right in it's middle - a new thought mid sentence with little relation to what was said before and I found it a bit jarring - enough to notice it as a particular quirk of the author.

I agree with a previous reviewer that at times the author seems particularly unsympathetic to her subjects. I don't think a biographer has to like their subject.... but Waller seemed particularly judgmental and harsh in her criticism.

Overall, however, it was an interesting take on a fascinating subject.

A popular history book. I enjoyed reading about the qveens. And learned for the first time to distinguish Mary I from Mary Queen of Scots! No wonder that period had always seemed confused to me.