Legacy of Words Jen Holling

The book that I think had the most impact on me as a writer was My Enemy the Queen by Victoria Holt. I read it when I was twelve or thirteen, but it was my introduction the Elizabethan period. It's more historical fiction, I suppose, than romance, but the tone, at least to my young heart, was very romantic. It's the tale of Lettice Knowlys, the woman who did what Queen Elizabeth I could not: marry Elizabeth's favorite, Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester. She was also the mother of Elizabeth's other favorite, the young earl of Essex. Lettice herself was banished from court after marrying Robert and never regained her standing at court.

I desperately wanted Lettice and Robert to live happily ever after and Elizabeth to just GO AWAY. Of course, that didn't happen. But what really intrigued me, was that these people were real. They had lived and this story could be true-the facts certainly were. For the first time, a book sent me to the library where I spent days poring over books about Queen Elizabeth and Leicester, hungry for every tidbit offered about Lettice. I remember feeling profoundly grateful to Ms. Holt, for introducing this fascinating character to me. It was only the beginning. I read all of her books based on historical personages and the researched the stories afterward, but none of them affected me like My Enemy the Queen. Though I didn't realize it at the time, all this prepared me for the fun of researching and writing my own historicals.