I love a good historic novel. Susan King delivered a solid story in Lady Macbeth. This is the story of Gruath, her journey toward becoming the wife of Macbeth and information through his battle to become the King of Scotland.

If you are wanting a Philippa Gregory-type historic novel, this is going to disappoint you. There are lots of names (many of them very difficult to pronounce), lots of facts and the characters are more dry than Gregory’s. However, if you are like me, and enjoy Sharon Kay Penman’s writing, then you will probably enjoy this book.

King had less to work with, from what I understand, then Penman did however. There is very little recorded about the wife of Macbeth, but King’s story was based around the academic research done on her and King Macbeth. I read this book having little to no knowledge of that time period and place and was fascinated by what I learned. This was not your typical highland romance stuff. There was actual substance here!

Gruath was an educated, intelligent, strong woman. To those who complain that she was protected by the men too much to lay claim to those adjectives, I’d simply like to remind them that this was a book written about a woman living around 1025. For her to be educated, to be trained in combat and to live through what she did – in fact, just to live, proves how strong this woman was. Two husbands, numerous miscarriages, the deaths of at least two sons and countless battles witnessed (including some that killed her own family before her eyes). If that’s not a strong woman, I’m not sure what is.

One of the most interesting things I took from this book was the tradition of the sticks. Before battle, King describes a scenario where Macbeth hands Lady Macbeth a stick and instructs her to use her knife to carve a symbol twice on it, once at the top and once at the bottom. The stick is then broken in half and one half placed in the field near them, bottom down. The other part of the stick is hidden somewhere on their person. After the battle has been completed, you are to go to the field of sticks, find your own and remove it. Those sticks remaining will tell, on their own accord, of who died in battle that day. Such a simple and effective method. I had no idea.

Anyway, a fascinating book about a time period not widely written or talked about (at least that I’ve heard). If you are needing a break from the Tudors or whatever portion of British history you are reading about, I’d recommend this book.