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Rating: 
Summary: A good history
Review: Between February 1555 and November 1558, 227 men and 56 women were brutally killed for their faith, during the reign of "Bloody" Queen Mary. In this book, Jasper Ridley tells their story, exposing all of the inhumanity that enfolded in those 45 dark months. The final chapter discusses the early years Elizabeth I's reign, and significance of Foxe's Book of Martyrs.This book makes for some hair-raising bedtime reading! It goes into excruciating detail of the victim's sufferings, giving a fairly in-depth understanding of what happened. Unfortunately, the author doesn't spend any space offering any analysis. For example, the Queen's false pregnancy was mentioned, but the author does not examine her mental stability, as I wish he would have. Also, I could have wished for an analysis of what the effects of this persecution were on English society. So, let me say that this is a good, but not a great book on Mary's persecutions. I therefore give it a somewhat qualified recommendation.
Rating: 
Summary: An very unenlightening list
Review: Bloody Mary's executions of Protestants created a deep seated hatred of Catholics in the English soul and cast a long shadow. Understanding what happened in this period of English history is essential to understanding the next 400 years. However this book is primarily a distillation of John Foxe's Book of Martyrs, and provides little more than a list of martyrs with only a limited attempt at understanding the forces at play.
Rating: 
Summary: Just Barely Kept My Interest
Review: I think that I am with Todd (see his review below) on this one. It is a great topic, but one that seems unduly light in the hands of Ridley. I do not mind the salacious aspects of the burnings at all. The problem is that Ridley cannot make up his mind if he is going to regal us with stories of grisly burnings till we can almost smell the burning flesh, or rather engage in a sort of mildly analytical narrative of the fluctuations of the Catholic vs. Protestant battles that went on in the hearts and minds of people in 16th Century England and Europe.
Both objectives would be fine by me. But he really just starts on track and then quickly switches to another. I can handle the fact that he is merely regurgitating "Foxe's Book of Martyrs" --there are a lot of august historians that make their honest living doing this well -- but Ridley really never pulls it off.
There is of course some of the value judgements that rear their heads at obscure and incomplete times. At times Ridley reminds me of some of the disjointed conversations I used to have with some of my (ancient English) relatives on the perils of Popery! in the 21st Cen! --- One would think that we could get past that. In other passages Ridley talks about the struggle in the hearts of all people and the brutal "terror" of the burning -- which easily eclipsed the rather limited burnings of Henry VIII.
Just barely kept my interest. I selected it as my ripping read of the week (you know, the one you read after you have grown bored with reading philosophy of science books and you can no longer concentrate on Hobsbawm -- the time where you just want to revel in the joys of Counter Reformation excess before crawling off to bed), but this book did not accomplish that for me....
It was OK, but with a read like this it does not encourage one to read Ridley's other works.
Rating:
Summary: Mildly entertaining, but deeply flawed
Review: There is no question that Ridley's book is mildly entertaining to read--any work based upon Foxe's "Book of Martyrs" should contain a certain amount of gripping material. Unfortunately, this book is little more than a rather tepid summary of some of the more salacious portions of Foxe. Ridley's prose occasionally evinces a dry wit, but more often it is simply banal and overly simplistic. It almost seems as though he was writing for a juvenile audience. Moreover, he makes little attempt to analyze the experience of the martyrs, preferring instead simply to repeat the narrative details supplied in Foxe. Most unforgivable, however, are Ridley's continually distorted moral and historical judgments, which render this book a very pale shadow of serious history. Opinions are certainly welcome in the study of history, but surely Ridley could have done better than to repeat some rather tired old cliches. It's really a shame and a surprise that this book is not better, considering the fine books Ridley has written in the past (e.g. biographies of Thomas Cranmer and Nicholas Ridley, two of the most prominent Marian martyrs.)
Rating:
Summary: Mildly entertaining, but deeply flawed
Review: There is no question that Ridley's book is mildly entertaining to read--any work based upon Foxe's "Book of Martyrs" should contain a certain amount of gripping material. Unfortunately, this book is little more than a rather tepid summary of some of the more salacious portions of Foxe. Ridley's prose occasionally evinces a dry wit, but more often it is simply banal and overly simplistic. It almost seems as though he was writing for a juvenile audience. Moreover, he makes little attempt to analyze the experience of the martyrs, preferring instead simply to repeat the narrative details supplied in Foxe. Most unforgivable, however, are Ridley's continually distorted moral and historical judgments, which render this book a very pale shadow of serious history. Opinions are certainly welcome in the study of history, but surely Ridley could have done better than to repeat some rather tired old cliches. It's really a shame and a surprise that this book is not better, considering the fine books Ridley has written in the past (e.g. biographies of Thomas Cranmer and Nicholas Ridley, two of the most prominent Marian martyrs.)
Rating:
Summary: Bloody Mary should be Burnin' Mary
Review: True to the title, Mr. Ridley's account is a listing and play by play of the many men and women who were subjected to the ritual "burning at the stake" for alleged "heretical" behaviour. Ridley seems to delight in the particulars of each event. Some were roasted singularly, and others were grouped together... The author does paint a grisly picture... especially when the wind changes.... As I read the accounts, I could not help but wonder what about the psychological makeup of Mary. I would have been equally interested in Ridley's assessment, based on historical evidence, of her state of mind. I wonder if there have been other accounts that deal with her pathological state of mind rather than the historical tail of her rein...
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