Interactive Historical Fiction e-books
Master Rosalind by John and Patricia Beatty
Twelve year old Rosalind Broom, raised by her clergyman grandfather in a small village near Oxford, does not relish his plans for her marriage to a suitably endowed gentleman. Instead, she dreams of an independent life, perhaps in London. Bright, high-spirited, and willful, she ignores her grandfather’s warnings, and disguises herself as a boy. Kidnapped and brought to London, she falls in with thieves and cutpurses, whom she later leaves to join Burbage’s company of actors.
Still accepted as a boy, she plays female roles, including that of Rosalind in As You Like It. Her deception is eventually revealed to no less a person than Queen Elizabeth. A well-researched, fast-moving historical adventure, which brilliantly suggests the ambiance of Elizabethan England. For readers 12 years and older.
“A well-researched, fast-moving historical adventure, which brilliantly suggests the ambiance of Elizabethan England.”
“She has no lordly hound like Holdfast to help her, but, as did Holdfast’s Catriona, Rosalind Broome gets to meet Queen Elizabeth I. In fact her boy’s disguise is so convincing that Will Shakespeare and the whole Globe company accept her as an apprentice player and patiently tutor her in the art of playing female parts while, meanwhile, a paid assassin searches in vain for the girl who is heir to the Broome baronetcy. As usual, the Beattys portray everyone from the London underworld to Shakespeare’s players to the court clique of Sir Robert Cecil with well documented surface accuracy...the combination of period setting and can-do heroine has a double-barreled appeal.”
