SOURCE: A review of To Recollect a Cloud of Ghosts, in North American Review, Vol. 265, No. 1, Spring, 1980, p. 69.

In the following review, Peterson provides a synopsis and favorable review of To Recollect a Cloud of Ghosts.

This is a wonderful book—quite literally, full of wonder. The occasion is Christmas in England, 1602-1603. The narrative begins its fine curve through the countryside from London, when an annual procession moves to the vast palace and grounds of Whitehall. As Queen Elizabeth I comes home, so does the season: the candles and flowers, Yule Log, fire and light and evergreens, rich cloths and tapestries, the Lords and Ladies of the Court. But this Christmas is to be the last for the aged Queen, and for the ghosts of her memory.

All the rituals of the season are observed. The dances are danced; the poems read; the supper eaten. Then Elizabeth...