Lady MacBethad: The electrifying story of love, ambition, revenge and murder behind a real life Scottish queen

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Now Picts did hold on to pagan beliefs longer than the Scots. But by the time AIith and Boedhe marry and have Gruoch, there has been a united Scotland for over a hundred and sixty years. The idea of them not being Christian doesn't make sense. ISABELLE: I was particularly fascinated by the relationship between Paganism and Christianity, especially in the more northern reaches of Scotland. By the time Lady MacBethad takes place, Scotland is solidly Christianised, and yet there was a blending between the ‘old religion’ and the ‘new religion’. In many cases, the blending of old practices and deities into Christian practices and ‘sainthood’ continues to be a source of great fascination to me. Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be /What thou art promised; yet do I fear thy nature, /It is too full o'th'milk of human kindness /To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great, /Art not without ambition, but without /The illness should attend it. (Act 1 Scene 5) Queen Hereafter” by Isabelle Schuler, is based on the true story of the actual, real-life Lady MacBeth and it’s quite a doozy. Part historical fiction, part fantasy, “Hereafter” is creative, clever and suspenseful.

Happy to share that the book had a lasting impression and after days of reading, I am still thinking about Gruoch's zeal for survival. Considering the timelines around which the book is based around, the behaviour of mothers training their daughters to be Damsels, men ruling the world, was captured in a picture-perfect mode.

A look into the origins of Lady Macbeth. A fictional historic romance. Gruoch is a strong female character that just wants to fulfill a prophecy about her. Nothing will stop her. Lady Macbeth makes fun of Macbeth for not having the courage to kill Duncan – but when it comes to it, she can’t kill him herself, and Macbeth has to do it. The story (as you might have guessed from the title) follows Gruoch, daughter of the rightful King of Scotland, in a tale of survival that spans from her childhood to adulthood. Gruoch ist zudem auch noch extrem unsympathisch dargestellt. Teils wirkt sie, als ob ihr alle Menschen um sie herum komplett egal wären. Und ich kann mir vorstellen, dass genau das das Ziel der Autorin war – eine meisterhafte Manipulatorin, für die alle anderen nur Werkzeuge sind. Leider ist sie aber eher naiv und muss ständig von anderen gerettet werden. Ich hatte hier leider das Gefühl, dass der Charakter, den ich erlebt habe weit von dem entfernt war, den die Autorin hier schreiben wollte und konnte einfach nicht nachvollziehen, wieso gewisse Charaktere ihr trotzdem immer wieder geholfen haben. This Lady Macbeth is reminiscent of Pascale Ferran’s Lady Chatterley (2006) and Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights (2011) – in which Paul Hilton played Mr Earnshaw. There are similar ways in which racial difference is rendered visible and turned into a new source of tension. The house itself is a potent character. We are not given a clear establishing shot of what it looks like from the outside, in the traditional style; we are just aware of its gloomy prison-like interior. You can almost feel the bone-chilling draught as you hear the incessant creak and squeak of floorboards, and doors opening and closing, like an empty church. It is a world without comfort, without upholstery, and a world in which movement is readily audible and easily monitored. It feels like a vital act of defiance when Sebastian and Katherine have loud sex on the prim marital bed, making the frame rattle, judder and grind, pretty well getting the woodwork to splinter.

Levin, Joanna (March 2002). "Lady MacBeth and the Daemonologie of Hysteria". ELH. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press. 69 (1): 21–55. doi: 10.1353/elh.2002.0009. ISSN 0013-8304. S2CID 161311998. Alternative takes on Shakespeare are ubiquitous, but this origin story of the real Lady Macbeth – the debut novel by Swiss Hawaiian-American screenwriter Schuler – is distinctive. There’s genuine commitment to character and storytelling in this tale of Gruoch, the prophesied Queen of Alba, who finds herself at the mercy of heir elect Duncan’s court as she travels to take the royal seat. Lady Mac Bethad explores the predicament of a woman fighting for her position in life. Inshallah United: A Story of Faith and FootballIn 1865, Katherine (Pugh) is in a loveless marriage to an older man, Alexander Lester (Hilton). They live at the estate of Alexander's father, Boris, in rural Northumberland in the North East of England. Katherine is forced to maintain a strict schedule and prevented from leaving the house. Boris scolds her for not giving Alexander a son, but Alexander's sexual interest in his wife seems to be limited to watching her naked body and masturbating whilst observing. One day, both Boris and Alexander have to leave the estate for separate business matters, leaving Katherine alone with the housemaid, Anna. For the first time in memory, she is free to explore the area to alleviate her boredom. So, is Gruoch's grandmother over 200 years old or has Isabella Schuler mangled history so much that events are placed hundreds of years after the time they actually took place.