Because of its tragic aspects, King Lear is frequently regarded as a tragedy. The play begins with King Lear’s death and his three daughters taking over the kingdom as rulers. Regan, one of the daughters, is married to Cornwall, who becomes the monarch of England’s half. Cornwall is a tough, aggressive man who hates being pushed around. It doesn’t get along very well between Lear and Cornwall. As Edmund seeks to steal his father’s fortune, he betrays his father to Cornwall, who turns him into the new Earl of Gloucester, and the old Earl is arrested. With his bare hands, Cornwall stomps out one eye of Gloucester with his heel and then digs out the other. Gloucester’s Blindness Is A Metaphor This was a gentle family 'saga' spanning multiple generations of the Bolitho family from WW1, through WW2 and onto present day. Cordelia represents every virtue, innocence, and happiness Lear despises in society. His daughters are liars, and he has lost everything he cares about, as a result of her actions. In her final act, Cordelia leaves to destroy Lear’s sanity and cause his death. King Lear Act In a change from perhaps what I was expecting from Fern Britton, I am transported to Cornwall as is to be expected but I am submerged into the past in this excellent piece of historical fiction.

This book starts just before WWI, and continues on through that war, in the aftermath of it, during WWII and its aftermath and then does a big jump to 2020 with our last main character. I really love reading about WWII, so it was such a lovely experience for me to have the added elements of WWI, I think it really helped to bring everything together and I found it both original and very well executed. Daughters of Cornwall is a multi-layered time-slip. This book grabbed my interested from the beginning when in the present-day Caroline receives an old trunk sent to her from Penang. As she looks through the personal effects, she slowly discovers the stories behind the women in her family who came before her. Mud’, says Bertie, ‘It was everywhere. In my eyes, my nose, my mouth, my ears. Men were going mad…. calling for their mothers……’ Fern Britton anchored her own ITV1 Saturday night series, That's What I Call Television in 2007. In December 2007, she went on a secret trip to Basra to broadcast behind-the-scenes footage of the troops. She appeared as a guest presenter for the show, Have I Got News for You on 27 April 2007 and again on 17 October 2008. On 12 January 2008, she was the winner in the first episode of Thank God You're Here, a television comedy series hosted by Paul Merton. In April 2008, Fern Britton together with her colleague, Phillip Schofield was the presenter of the revived 'all star' version of the super hit ITV show, Mr and Mrs. The show was broadcast on Saturday nights as a six-part series.I love the author’s books so eagerly awaited this book & thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for the copy. This is another well written & very well researched book that although is still set, mostly, in Cornwall it's very different from the author's other novels. I loved it. Very good characters with plenty of depth, the book was well paced & never lagged. I was drawn in at the start & found myself totally engrossed & actually read it in two sittings as I just couldn’t put it down. An engrossing family saga spanning a century & of course that secret. Each following generation has unplanned pregnancies and layers of untold truths. Each generation is the story of a strong woman and the love and support of family facing the world in closed ranks never learning from but accepting the mistakes. After Goneril and Edmund have left, Regan watches as her husband pulls Gloucester’s eyes out. When a servant attempts to stop the Duke of Cornwall, Regan murders him. As she runs offstage after her husband is fatally wounded, she prays. Cornland Shakespeare: An Elizabethan Playwright From the Sunday Times bestselling author comes a sweeping, epic novel of mothers and daughters, secrets and lies, and a love that lasts a lifetime… By the time we reach the present day, we meet Caroline, Hannah's daughter, who now has her own daughter, Natalie. Caroline has been aware of some of the family secrets for a while and knows that she descends from string, capable women who prospered despite the pitfalls of their lives, but she has never known the identity of her father. Unexpectedly she receives a trunk containing some of her grandfather Ernest's possessions & amongst the old possessions she also find strands of her family history.

Caroline discovers her families history through a trunk which looks like it has come all the way from Penang. She embarks on a discovery. Caroline wants to show her daughter how a life can be lived and that all it takes is determination and an inner strength that all the women in the family clearly have. Regan is the middle of King Lear’s three daughters. She is married to the Duke of Cornwall and does not yet seem to have any children. She makes a public speech at the start of the play in which she tries to outdo her older sister Goneril in expressing her love for her father. She is rewarded with a third of the kingdom and, when her youngest sister Cordelia is disinherited, she rules half the kingdom alongside Goneril. Regan follows Goneril’s lead in refusing to accept Lear bringing his knights to stay in her home. She meets her father at Gloucester’s house where she and Goneril let Lear walk off into the storm rather than allow him to bring his knights into their homes. She regards Gloucester as a traitor for helping Lear escape to Dover and supports her husband in gouging out Gloucester’s eyes. When Cornwall dies, she puts Edmund in charge of her army and declares her intention to marry him. Clara’s daughter, Hannah, is in love for the first time – but like her mother before her, she realises that everything comes at a price. In the devastating wake of World War Two, she must protect her baby, Caroline…I love historical fiction and I was so happy to get the chance to read this book, the blurb and cover completely drew me in and I have to say that they did not disappoint. This book is set primarily in Cornwall, but some chapters take part in France, Kent, London, Penang (Malay) and army training camps, and I have to say that the setting (Cornwall) was a very important part of the story, especially surrounding the heritage and family tree of the characters.

King Lear’s court is set in the court of an aging British monarch. The poem is most likely written by William Shakespeare between Othello and Macbeth, and it was first published in 1604. It is the late King Lear‘s understanding that his country’s divisions are between his widowed daughters and their husbands. The error of his ways leads him to insanity. After supporting the displaced King, Gloucester is cast out, and Goneril and Regan are angry as well. Cordelia reconciles with Lear as her army prepares to meet that led by her sisters and their husbands, and she begged Lear to accept her forgiveness. Cordelia and Lear are imprisoned by Edmund, who intends to execute Cordelia. Set between two world wars and beyond the Daughters of Cornwall is a family saga spanning decades and follows the lives and fortunes of the Bolitho family, with Clara at the helm.The novel, written by the woman who was King lear’s mother, is named Learwife, and it takes place entirely within the mind of the woman who was mother to Regan, Goneril, and Cordelia: Berte, Queen lear‘s wife. The Tragic Downfall Of King Lea On the plus side this book was a very easy read. There were also some curveballs thrown in, one in particular providing a very dramatic twist to the tale which put everything in a different light and required a complete reevaluation of all that had gone before. Also the characters are well developed. I think this is the author’s first foray into historical fiction and although I enjoyed this gentle,unassuming read immensely, I didn’t like it quite so much as her previous novels. A new Fern Britton novel will always have me rushing out to buy at the earliest opportunity and on the strength of her previous successes I do think Daughters of Cornwall will sell just as well.