Today, as I was on my way to yet another doctors appointment, I found myself in front of a charity bookshop with a massive sale sign in the window. I decided to pop in and see what their history section was like. And when I came out my purse was much lighter than it had been when I went inside! What I found was a plethora of beautiful books, and that was just in the history section alone – I didn’t really have time to check out the fiction section – and I could have spent hours in there. In the end I picked up a few books that caught my eye, the Jasper Ridley one in particular is one I’ve had my eye on for a while but never gotten around to buying, and the Mary Tudor one by Anna Whitelock was one I picked up almost straight away. I’ve only ever read snippets on Mary so it will be nice to actually read a full scale biography. But it was the one at the top of the pile that got me excited, “At The Court Of The Borgia” by Pope Alexander VI’s Master of Ceremonies Johann Burchard, and translated by Geoffrey Parker. You guys know me, I love the Borgia family and it will be really interesting to read something originally written by someone close to Alexander VI, and just how biased it is. Plus the front cover is actually gorgeous…