Valerie Schutte and Jessica S. Hower, eds. Mary I in writing: Letters, Literature, and Representation, Cham : Springer International Publishing, Imprint: Palgrave Macmillan 2022, pp. xvii, 298, £109.99, ISBN: 978-3-030-95127-6

Abstract

ing that can tell us a great deal about the multidimensional ways in which the English, the Portuguese and the Spanish read and understood each other. This volume is a fresh and welcome reinterpretation of a field that has traditionally been confined to axiomatic interpretations of AngloSpanish enmity and Anglo-Portuguese and Hiberno-Spanish amity. It is undeniable that those tendencies were there, but the present work allows us to picture Anglo-Hiberno-Iberian relations in all their variety and complexity. In exploring the transnational dimension of these relations from different angles—encountering, narrating, reading—Exile, Diplomacy and Texts succeeds unambiguously in its aim to counter some of the oversimplified narratives that have at times characterised the field. This collection of essays, intelligently put together, beautifully written, and thoughtfully edited, is an example of multidisciplinary scholarship at its best and is sure to make an impact in the multiple fields to which it contributes—religious, political, diplomatic, military and literary history. This book is, without a doubt, a prime example of generative British-Hiberno-Iberian collaboration and a much-needed breath of fresh air in a subject which continues to bear fruit.