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Summary
Summary
A bold, feminist debut novel, reimagining Mary, Queen of Scots's darkest hour, when she was held hostage in a remote Scottish castle with a handful of loyal women while plotting a daring escape to reclaim her country and her freedom.
"Such a vivid, visceral read, you feel you're locked in the tower alongside the characters, acting out a royal family drama. I am moved and impressed." --Tracy Chevalier, New York Times bestselling author of Girl with a Pearl Earring
Scotland, 1567. A pregnant Mary, Queen of Scots is dragged out of her palace by rebel lords and imprisoned in the isolated Lochleven Castle, an ancient fortress surrounded by a vast lake. Her infant son and heir, James, has been captured by her enemies.
Accompanying Mary are two inconspicuous serving women: observant, ambitious Jane and romantic, quick-tempered Cuckoo, who endeavor to keep their mercurial mistress company while sharing the space of a claustrophobic room over the course of their eleven-month forced stay. Their hosts want them dead. They'll settle for Mary's abdication.
After Mary reluctantly surrenders her throne, her closest friend, the reserved, devoted Lady Seton, is permitted to join the captive women. Against the odds, as they hatch a perilous getaway plan, the four women form a bond that transcends class and religion, and for Jane and Seton, becomes something even deeper. At the center of it all is Mary--calculating, charming, brave, and unbowed. Flora Carr's thrilling, feverish debut is a celebration of resilience, a meditation on the meaning of power, and a testament to the unshakeable strength of female friendship, starring one of history's most charismatic leaders.
Author Notes
FLORA CARR was named one of 40 Emerging Writers 2020/2021 with the London Library and has a short story published in the program's anthology. She is a previous winner of the British Vogue Talent Contest, and in 2020 her short story Starling was Highly Commended for the Harper's Bazaar Short Story Prize. She was also shortlisted for the 2018 V .S. Pritchett Short Story Prize, and is a graduate of The Writing Squad. Her journalistic work has appeared in the likes of TIME Magazine , British ELLE , and The Observer New Review . Flora grew up in Yorkshire and currently lives in London. The Tower is her first novel.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Carr's lush debut chronicles the imprisonment of Mary, Queen of Scots (1542--1587), following a coup by rebel lords. Recently married to her third husband and several months pregnant after he raped her, Mary is rowed from Edinburgh to Lockleven in 1567 to be held in a castle belonging to her father's mistress. At her side are two chambermaids: Jane, a native of Scotland, and Cuckoo, who, like Mary, is originally from France. The two women are devoted to their queen and attempt to lighten her spirits through the first difficult months of her imprisonment, including her miscarriage, forced abdication, and severe illness. Tension mounts with the arrival of Lady Seton, Mary's closest friend, as the three women vie for the queen's devotion. Further drama ensues after Cuckoo has sex with a lute player and the women smuggle him out of their chamber by dressing him in women's clothes, an act of subterfuge that inspires Mary's climactic escape. Adding to the gripping plot is Carr's successful portrayal of the women's shared determination--driven by "memories as though they are prayers"--to recapture the kingdom. It amounts to a rousing and lyrical epic. Agent: Rebecca Wearmouth, Peters Fraser & Dunlop. (Mar.)
Kirkus Review
Mary, Queen of Scots, imprisoned in cold, damp Lochleven Castle, on an island in the middle of the loch, plots her escape while attended by a small, faithful circle of women-in-waiting. Close-focused and vivid, British author Carr's debut centers on a year in the famed royal's life while encompassing the events, people, and history that brought her to this place. It's a detailed character portrait of Mary, a charismatic, flirtatious, "high-spirited beauty" who loves poetry and dancing as much as riding with troops. A queen since she was 6 days old, thrice married, and mother to 1-year-old James, Mary, at 24, is pregnant again when captured and imprisoned. Early in her incarceration she miscarries twins and is then forced to sign abdication papers. After these dramatic events, the pace of the novel slows to accommodate a deeper consideration of the relationships among the four trapped women: Mary's two lowly "chamberers," Jane and Cuckoo, are joined by a third, Lady Seton, one of the aristocratic "jewelled ladies" more customary in a queen's retinue. Friendships, jealousies, and more intense emotions crisscross the group, while their captors spy on them and Mary secretly works with loyalists to secure freedom. Carr's interest in the women--their bodies, their allegiances, their intimacies--offers a contemporary perspective that extends beyond the foursome to other females seeking or manipulating power. These musings and observations are rendered in bright, cinematic prose--"A woman with sunburn on her chest and forearms bends down to pluck white camomile flowers"--yet there's a circularity as well as an inevitable claustrophobia to the structure, which the narrative never entirely outgrows. A robust modern revisiting of popular historical territory. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Carr's taut debut recalls Maggie O'Farrell's The Marriage Portrait (2022) in its evocation of a highborn Renaissance woman trapped against her will and desperately contriving to escape. The setting is Lochleven Castle, a stone fortress on a Scottish island, hauntingly picturesque from outside but a dank, oppressive prison for Mary, Queen of Scots, and her two chamberwomen, Jane and Marie, called Cuckoo. In 1567, Mary, the embattled Catholic ruler of a Protestant country, is with child by her third husband, the despised Bothwell, and pressured to abdicate in favor of her one-year-old son, James. The women's shifting emotional patterns and regular flashbacks illustrating the political background keep tension bubbling and prevent the story from feeling claustrophobic. Mary's childhood friend, Lady Seton, joins the trio later, complicating their dynamics. Mary remains entrancing as she earns and feeds off the devotion of her fellow prisoners. Carr dexterously explores how the seductive allure of royalty is undimmed by Mary's grim circumstances, which are depicted with earthy physicality. Despite Mary's foreshadowed downfall, this pulled-from-history novel resounds as a victory for female camaraderie and cleverness.
