Most readers will be familiar with Shakespeare’s tragedy MacBeth, that stirring tale of political ambition turned deadly. But how many know that the seeds of that story have their roots in real-life history? And what of Lady MacBeth, the woman he married, and whose son, Lulach, from her first marriage, reigned briefly after his death?
Before she was Lady MacBeth, she was a child named Groa, nicknamed Gruoch after a Pictish Seeress, by her grandmother, who refused conversion to Christianity and clung to the old ways. Bright and ambitious, Gruoch was born into troubled times, the granddaughter of an usurper King, fleeing her ancestral lands after King Malcolm viewed her father as a troublemaker and potential threat.
Her grandmother prophesied that she would be one day be Queen, and what’s more, she would achieve a fame and immortality no-one could ever guess at. She only needed to survive to achieve what was rightfully hers.
Spurred by this prophesy, Gruoch lived her life knowing this to be true, manoeuvering to make the best of whatever hand that fate dealt her, and remaining ever close to MacBethad, a young man she had grown up with, and who also had a claim to the throne.
This is a interesting and well-written story that explores the turbulent times of the early 9th century, when the Norse still threatened from the North and Scotland and England were made of many fractured kingdoms. Old faiths war with new, and lives are easily taken where expedient. Amid the turmoil, Gruoch grows into adulthood, considers her charms, and makes her moves with the skills of a seasoned politician.
Lady Macbethad is a clever and entertaining historical novel.
Reviewed by Lesley West
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