The White Queen

Gregory applies her romantically written fictionalization of history to the powerful story of Elizabeth Woodville, the first English born commoner to become Queen of England. Her marriage to King Edward IV became part of the aristocratic battle of kin against kin for the crown during the turbulent and tragic years of the War of the Roses. From the fairytale-like introduction to the loss of her two young princes in the Tower of London, Elizabeth tells her own tale of joy and grief. Bianca Amato narrates the story with little vocal embellishment. It is a reading rather than a performance, and, in this instance, wholly successful. Rather than a creating a host of character voices, Amato uses her strong, haunting and cultured tone and accent so that listeners hear Elizabeth herself. A Touchstone hardcover (Reviews, Jun. 29).