RaveThe Sunday Times (UK)A story written with verve and passion ... Entertaining accounts of the marriage proposals ... Mary flits in and out of the pages of Paranque’s book like a troublesome moth ... Paranque writes powerfully of the death of Catherine but skims over the assassination of her son, Henry III ... Paranque’s portrayal of Gloriana owes a great deal to the astonishing longevity of Elizabethan propaganda ... Blood, Fire and Gold is a marvellous story ... For many readers its interest will lie in its unfamiliarity, and it certainly does fill a gap in a neglected area of 16th-century history.
