The Stone Rose

Name: The Stone Rose
Rating: 4.31 (1703 reviews)

by Carol McGrath Book 3 in the The Rose Trilogy series.

First published 2022

Amazon

4.3(1,703)

London, 1350. In the wake of the Black Death, Agnes struggles to continue her stonemason father’s work when she is summoned by the ageing Isabella of France, mother of Edward III and widow of Edward II. The former queen wants her version of the past recorded, drawing Agnes into the memory of a marriage and reign overshadowed by favourites, rebellion and the violent deposition of a king.

Through Isabella’s recollections, the novel returns to her conflict with Edward II, the influence of Hugh Despenser the Younger and her alliance with Roger Mortimer, while the plague-scarred present gives the story a second register of loss and survival. McGrath uses the meeting of a queen and a working woman to examine reputation, independence and the ways women’s lives can be obscured or simplified by later history.

Historical Periods

Black Death1347–1351 CE Invasion of England and Deposition of Edward II1326–1327 CE

Genres

Biographical Fiction Court & Political Fiction Dynastic & Royal Fiction Social & Domestic Fiction

Historical people

Edward III of England1312–1377 Isabella of France1295–1358 Edward II of England1284–1327 Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March1287–1330 Hugh Despenser the Youngerc. 1286–1326