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Summary: Excellent Book on the Life of England's Great Monarch
Review: Allison Weir is a master historian and writer weaving the primary source materials into very easy to read text. She has definitely done her homework on Elizabeth and includes so many different aspects of her life. Any of Weir's books are a good read, but this one is especially excellent, if you are interested in famous women in history.
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Summary: Celia's Review
Review: I checked this book out of the school library for a project, but it was so interesting I continued to read it. I am fascinated with Elizabeth I and her family and history. It is the most in-depth, wonderfully written, and complete biography I have ever read on anyone in history. Her life was so amazing and inriguing, how can anybody not enjoy reading about her and how people lived back then. You know there is something special about a person if they name a whole period in time after them.
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Summary: Queen Elizabeth I for all.
Review: Weir's book was brought to my attention by two very reliable sources. One source is a Curator of an exhibit on the Queen and the other source was a Guild of Elizabethan reanactors. Both spoke highly of the book and its truthful information. I found the book incredible. I enjoyed how the text was very detailed but not overly academic. I enjoyed how the author mentioned what was fact and what was fiction about Her Majesties's life. I also enjoyed how the author noted whether establishments were still standing. Overall, the book was a wonderful read and gave me a mountian of useful information about Queen Elizabeth I.
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Summary: Readable but disappointing
Review: Having really liked Weir's other books on the Tudor dynasty, I was happy to finally get a chance to read her biography of Elizabeth I. Unfortunately, it's not a book I will be recommending to others. I found it very "fluffy" and scattered. Elizabeth's abortive "courting strategy" for example, is no doubt important. But I found there to be so much of a focus on this particular aspect of her life, that I ended up feeling as though the book could be summarized "Elizabeth flirted around endlessly with a bunch of princes, then there was some Armada thing, and then she got depressed about being old and died." Where is the "meat" on what happened from year to year, how she got through it, her interactions (if any) with subjects and her actions during the years of famine that are so briefly mentioned? Why such a tiny section on the Spanish Armada, something that was such a defining moment?The book also contains a stylistic flaw that I found annoying: at least three times, there were facts or quotes or opinions that appeared once in the book and then popped up again later in the book for no obvious reason (for example, the fact that she received some of the new silk stockings and resolved to never wear anything else again). The first time or two, I found myself wondering if I had accidentally opened it to a part I had read before. After this happened two or three times, especially with minor points that didn't seem to be terribly central to either section they were in, it started to feel like either padding or poor editing.
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Summary: Fantastic...
Review: I would recommend this as one of the best among biographies of Elizabeth I, and I have read many. It's clear, concise, and carefully researched, yet not dry or dragged-out in the least. Alison Weir is, in my opinion, among the best historians writing on this period today, and her other books (among them "Eleanor of Aquitaine" and "The Six Wives of Henry VIII") are also well worth the read.
Rating: 
Summary: Good,but not what I expected...
Review: I loved Ms. Weir's books about Henry VIII,so when I saw that she had written a biography about Elizabeth I,I had to buy it. Sadly I was rather disspointed.In this book Ms. Weir focus seems to be centered on the "love affairs" between Elizabeth and Robert Dudley and Elizabeth and Essex she also seems to contend that the only reason Elizabeth did not marry was because she was traumatized by the death of her mother Anne Boleyn.Perhaps that is one reason but as anyone who is familiar with 16th centruy politics would know if Elizabeth had married her husband would become King,and if she married a forigner England would be ruled by her husbands country.I just felt Ms. Weir may give some readers the impression that Anne Boleyn was the only reason Elizabeth did not marry.Elizabeth was very human but she was also a shrewd politician and the greatest monarch in history.If she had married I doubt we would be able to say that,and Elizabeth knew that too. All in all this is an excellent book,but I would suggest it be a second choice for those unfamiliar with Elizabeth I.
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Summary: Weir makes history spellbinding
Review: If you are one that wants to know more about British history but does not have time to take a course, Alison Weir's books are perfect for you. She takes you through what can be very dry history and puts you on the edge of your seat, even if you already know what happens to Mary Queen of Scots. Once you read one of her books you will make sure that you read them all. Is she writing one on James Stewart?
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Summary: Gloriana
Review: Apart from her obvious talents as a historian and biographer, Alison Weir is an exceptional story teller. The historical events in this biography have been dealt with many times before but I don't think Elizabeth's character, personality and motivations were ever described in such vivid and exciting terms. The book is especially rich on Elizabeth's personal life, her relationships with her many suitors and how she played one against the other to her advantage, and how she handled one international crisis after another and always managed to come out on top, even in the most desperate circumstances. Pope Sixtus V, one of her many enemies, once said admiringly: "She is a woman, only mistress of half an island, and yet she makes herself feared by Spain, by France, by the Empire, by all!". Ms. Weir also gives a detailed exploration of how Elizabeth built her own legend and through cunning, intelligence, talent and perseverance created the almost preternatural characters of Gloriana and The Virgin Queen. Elizabeth was an exceptional personality, a woman who managed to remain in control of her kingdom for many years at a time when women were considered too weak and unstable to occupy any position of power. And she didn't just remain in control, she also managed to transform England from a rather weak country living in the shadows of France and Spain into a major power. Despite having almost everything against her, she obtained the love and respect of her subjects and in the process became an almost legendary figure. As Ms. Weir so aptly puts it: "No English sovereign, before or since, has so captured the imagination of his or her people or so roused their patriotic feelings".
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Summary: Great account of our first Elisabeth
Review: Funny how today many people think of the late Queen Mother as Elisabeth I. Even our most royalist English Canadian friends sometimes find themselves quite surprised when I tell them that Elisabeth I lived a long time before the Queen Mother. I find that we're not aware enough of our own history, and mine includes England's. After all, wasn't it under Elisabeth that the great oversea that made America (which, by the way, includes Canada) our land? This account of Elisabeth's life is a very fully researched one, and while sometimes Ms. Weir appears to indulge in some fiction, it only serves to fill in the blanks of Elisabeth's life, and is never unnerving. I would have liked to hear more about the slave trade, and the treatment of "Indians", for such a woman who balked upon execution certainly had some misgivings about them. That may be for another book, however. The Life of Elisabeth I reads as a novel. But what a novel! Here we do not talk about standard history, we talk about Herstory, for real.
Rating: 
Summary: Blech!
Review: I really didn't care for this book. The author did not write the story in an engaging way, and I did not feel drawn into the world of Queen Elizabeth at all. In a word, boring. Another annoying aspect of the book was the author's tendency to slip in stories out of chronology. She'll be writing about the Queen's coronation, but suddenly she'll drop in a story from 20 years later. And she does it again and again. I love to read all kinds of books, and I seldom ever put down a book without finishing it, but I found this book to be such drudgery that I quit reading it. Blech!
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