Reading for Writing - 'The Other Boleyn Girl'

I've been having a very busy time recently with lots of things happening at once. It was the Gang of Five meeting at my house yesterday - a whole evening devoted to discussing writing of mine that I'd sent them to read.

My fellow writers managed to read three of my short stories - four, if you take into account that I'd sent them two versions of one of them - and they came up with some very useful comments and observations about them.

I think that I'll be able to make the changes to two of the stories very soon and get them sent off. However, the third one (the one with two versions) will take a bit more time to finalise as they liked different aspects of each of the versions. My challenge will be to work out how to combine the best of both of them as one is from the viewpoint of the younger sister and the other is from the viewpoint of the older girl.

So today I took a look at my diary and my 'to do' list and realised that to my alarm that I have another deadline looming. I'll really have to get my skates on if I'm to meet this one.

We've got another 'Reading for Writing' book group meeting in Holmfirth Library on Monday afternoon, but I hadn't even started reading the novel we're meant to be discussing. I eventually made a start on it this morning. It's called The Other Boleyn Girl and it's by the best-selling historical novelist, Philippa Gregory.

I think I'd been putting off reading this book for a couple of reasons. One is because it's a historical novel set in a period I know very little about - the court of Henry VIII. Having been brought up in Scotland, I had studied Mary, Queen of Scots and not really learnt anything about Henry.

Unlike some of my contemporaries who were brought up in England, I didn't grow up able to list all the wives of Henry VIII in order. I know he had a lot of them, but I'm not even sure which ones were divorced, which ones died and which were executed.

The other reason I haven't been keen to read this book is that it's a very big book to read - 529 pages of extremely small print. (I do wish publishers wouldn't use small print. Even if it does save paper and cut costs, it's very tiring to read for any length of time, even for someone like me who doesn't usually have to wear glasses for reading.)

Having said that, I've been pleasantly surprised so far. I'm finding the novel very entertaining and there's plenty of emotion, suspense, and intrigue to carry me along. The main characters are pretty interesting too. I do find it very odd though to find Henry VIII being described as an object of desire. For most of my life, I've thought of him as than the chap on the pictures with jowels and a huge belly from feasting on too many stuffed pheasants and boars' heads.

So I've got off to a good start. Will I be able to finish reading the book by Monday, though? Will I have any eyesight left after reading all that small print? Will I need to resort to using reading glasses or a magnifyer?

Watch this space to see if I have enough staying power to reach the end of the novel. Reading it is certainly an experience.