The Confession of Piers Gaveston

By Brandy Purdy

The history books tell us that Piers Gaveston was many things: arrogant, ambitious, avaricious, flamboyant, extravagant, reckless, brave, witty, vain, and peacock proud, the son of a condemned witch who used his wicked wiles and forbidden sex to entice and enslave King Edward II. Now the object of that scandalous and legendary obsession tells his side of the story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brandy Purdy
• Release date: Sep 17, 2009
• ISBN: 9781458069832

Brandy Purdy

Brandy Purdy is the author of several historical novels. When she's not writing, she's either reading, watching classic movies, or spending time with her cat, Tabby. She first became interested in history at the age of nine or ten when she read a book of ghost stories that contained a chapter about the ghost of Anne Boleyn haunting the Tower of London. Visit her website at http://www.brandypurdy.com for more information about her books. You can also follow her via her blog at http://brandypurdy.blogspot.com where she posts updates about her work and reviews of what she has been reading.

Reviews for The Confession of Piers Gaveston

[dsalerni_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Piers Gaveston was a soldier, a champion jouster, and a witty conversationalist. According to his own fictional account in this novel by Brandy Purdy, he was also a pagan and a male prostitute who viewed his long-standing affair with King Edward II as merely another means to make a living. The Confession of Piers Gaveston is a skillfully written debut novel which reveals some very ugly aspects of the British monarchy in the fourteenth century. I am not speaking of King Edward’s gay love affair with the narrator, Piers Gaveston, but of Edward’s obsessive and histrionic personality. He was certainly not the first or the last ruler to allow his lusts to cloud his judgment, but he may have been one of the most disinterested and incompetent kings in England’s history. Some of the scenes in the novel seem almost unbelievably melodramatic – such as Edward abandoning his bride on their wedding day for his male lover’s company and actually giving him the jewelry that had been a wedding gift from the queen’s father – but these are all documented historical facts! Brandy Purdy’s depiction of them is probably accurate, outrageous though it may seem that a king would behave that way.Piers Gaveston makes a lively and personable narrator for this tale, and Purdy has given him a lyrical, compelling, and sometimes playful voice. She has created in Piers a believable man of many talents who nonetheless is only credited with one – his ability to seduce almost anyone with his good looks and wit. During the novel, Piers bitterly reflects on how his prowess on the battlefield and intelligence in statecraft go unappreciated by his detractors and his friends alike, as he is considered merely a pretty bauble to be used to sate the king’s lust. Meanwhile, the man on the throne of England clearly is incapable of the job he has inherited. As Piers so aptly puts it: “Edward is the King of England and if he cannot find one misplaced shoe which he knows is somewhere in a single locked room then no wonder his subjects have no confidence in him!”It is inevitable that this book will be compared to Susan Higginbotham’s novel, The Traitor’s Wife, which also depicts Edward’s reign. Brandy Purdy’s novel focuses on a narrower time period, includes a smaller cast, but still provides a chilling glimpse of the events which follow Piers Gaveston’s death. All in all, I wish I had read The Confessions of Piers Gaveston first, because this novel clearly introduces and explains the King’s three most serious adversaries: Pembroke, Lancaster, and Warwick, whom I confused in the other, longer novel. However, both books are very worth reading for anyone interested in this dark era of England’s history and a king who makes King Henry VIII seem temperate and reasonable by comparison!