Quotes from Philippa Gregory

For a moment our eyes meet, but we exchange nothing except a grim determination to get this parting over, to get this exile underway, to keep this precious boy safe. I suppose that Jasper is the only man that I have loved, perhaps he is the only man that I will ever love. But there has never been time for words of love between us, we have spent most of our time saying goodbye.

The moonlight on the water outside the chamber window throws the reflection of ripples onto the whitewashed ceiling of the room, so they look as if they are underwater, floating with Melusina in the fountain. But I know that they are both gone from me, and our water mother is singing them on their journey down the sweet river to the deep springs of home.

There is nothing but the gleam of mysterious light—not dawn and yet not starlight—where the unlit earth meets the night-black sky, and the only sound is the haunting call of the owls.

But Elizabeth and I are accustomed to loss, we are Plantagenets—we dine on a diet of betrayal and heartbreak.

It felt as if we were fighting something worse than Anne, some demon that possessed her, that possessed all of us Boleyns: ambition—the devil that had brought us to this little room and brought my sister to this insane distress, and us to this savage battle.

It's not his friendship I miss,' Elizabeth said bluntly. 'It's him. The very person of him. His presence. I want his shadow on my wall, I want the smell of him. I can't eat without him, I can't do the business of the realm. I can't read a book without wanting his opinion, I can't hear a tune without wanting to sing it to him.

There is no freedom for women in this world, fight or not as you like. See where Anne has brought herself.

Harry could come and go as he pleased; he was always a visitor in his own home. He never belonged to Wideacre as I belonged. Only Papa, the land and I were the constant elements in my life. Papa, the land and I had been inseparable since the first time I had seen Wideacre in its wonderful wholeness from between the hunter's ears. Papa, the land and I would be here forever.

My mother does not need your good opinion," Anthony says icily. "None of us care what you think.

I saw his glance flick over me, like a horse trader assessing the value of a filly. Whenever I looked up the king's eyes were on me, whenever I looked away I was conscious of his stare still on my face. When

The Duke of Clarence, the king's beloved brother George, is beside him looking like a true York prince, golden-haired, ready of smile, graceful even in repose, a handsome dainty copy of my husband. He is fair and well made, his bow is as elegant as an Italian dancer's, and his smile is charming. "Your Grace," he says. "My new sister. I give you joy of your surprise marriage and wish you well in your new estate.

Once more, I am watching the most powerful men in the kingdom bring their power to bear on a woman who has done nothing worse than live to the beat of her own heart, see with her own eyes; but this is not their tempo nor their vision, and they cannot tolerate any other.

I've just written out the death certificate,' the doctor said cheerfully. 'Natural causes of course. She was eighty-eight. I think it was the Beaujolais Nouveau, I warned her not to drink it after Christmas but she was always stubborn. I'll send the undertakers around later. But they won't be able to fit her for at least a couple of days. She'll be all right there as long as it doesn't get too hot.

When I rose up the queen was looking toward me, not as if I were a rival, but as if I were still her favorite little maid in waiting who might bring her some comfort. She looked at me as if for a moment she would seek someone who would understand the dreadful predicament of a woman, in this world ruled by men. George

Slowly, like a breeze going through treetops, they doff their hats and bow, and I realize that they are acknowledging me as queen, queen in the place of Margaret of Anjou, Queen of England, the greatest woman in the realm, and nothing in my life will ever be the same again. I

supposed to live a

might be that marriage was not the death of a woman and the end of her true self, but the unfolding of her. It might be that a woman could be a wife without having to cut the pride and the spirit out of herself. A woman might blossom into being a wife, not be trimmed down to fit.

For these are true boys and they draw dirt to them as if by magic.

Semmi sem betegít meg jobban egy országot, mint amikor saját népe tagjai harcolnak egymás ellen.

If I burned them, I became as one of those who think that ideas are dangerous and should be destroyed.

But there are good people whose safety depends on me speaking for them. I have promised to keep the king in one mind. It is easier to stand on your head than keep the king to one mind, Will observes, straight as a yeoman, but upside down. If I were you, Majesty, I would stand on your head beside me.

on what he wants to say. I step back. So it is just as his wife fears, and she was

iI you are a reader you are already half-way to being a writer -for you have a love of words and a pleasure from seeing them on a page.

She prayed while you were raping me?" I ask him. "It isn't rape," he says. "Stop saying that. You're a fool to call it that. Since we're betrothed, it cannot be rape. As my wife you cannot refuse me. I have a right to you, as your betrothed husband. From now, till your death, you will never be able to refuse me. There can be no rape between us, only my rights and your duty." He