A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver

Eleanor of Aquitaine is in Heaven, waiting to learn whether or not her second husband, King Henry II of England, will be able to join her. Henry had died even before Eleanor, but he still had not won admission into Heaven. Waiting with Eleanor are Henry's mother, Matilda-Empress, and William the Marshal. A chance encounter with Abbot Suger, an old friend of Eleanor's from the time of her first marriage, starts the four of them remembering times past. Each person in turn tells a part of Eleanor's life, vividly illustrating the excitement of living in twelfth-century England and France, and especially the excitement of being Eleanor. Wife of two kings, mother of two others, Richard the Lion Heart and John, she set the tone of court life for her times, sponsored poets and musicians, established the legend of King Arthur as a romantic feature of English literature, set the Rules of Courtly Love, and helped rule a kingdom that spanned from Scotland to the Pyrenees. And she did all this in a time when a king could keep his queen a prisoner -- and did!This book is a novel, fiction, fantasy even. But everything in it about Eleanor and her family and her times is true.

E.L. Konigsburg E.L. Konigsburg was born in New York City but did most of her growing up in small towns in Pennsylvania. She graduated from Carnegie-Mellon University as a chemist, and has done both research and teaching in that field. After the youngest of her three children entered school, she began writing. Her books are Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth, a Newbery Honor book; From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, the Newbery Award winner in 1968 and later a William Allen White Award winner; About the B'nai Bagels; (George); Altogether, One at a Time. A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver; The Dragon in the Ghetto Caper; The Second Mrs. Giaconda; Father's Arcane Daughter; Throwing Shadows; and Journey to an 800 Number.

She and her family now live in Jacksonville, Florida, where she enjoys painting, gardening, and walking on the beach-the latter two only in fine weather.