The fact that Jeffery Hudson is a secondary character in his own story is rather disappointing although it is understandable considering the lack of information or documentation on Hudson. Most of the writing the author did do on the "Queen's Dwarf" is inferential at best.
This is an extraordinary book. Ostensibly a biography of Jeffrey Hudson, "Britain's Smallest Man," this fascinating work contains hidden depths.
While the story of Geoffrey Hudson, Lord Minimum, is an interesting one and worth reading, the author really succeeds in making Hudson's entire world real and accessible to the reader. I love it when a good book generates an interest in me to learn more about the subject and times, and I'm now interested in reading more about the court of Henrietta and Charles I and his trial and subsequent execution.
Delightful read, well-researched history of a "dwarf's" (the author's word, not mine) time at court and his eventual downfall to poverty when his particular royal patron fell out of favor.
Seven year old Jeffrey Hudson was tiny, when he popped out of a pie specially prepared at one of the Duke of Buckingham's celebrated banquets to the delight of King Charles I's wife Queen Henrietta Maria. The Queen adopted Jeffrey as part of her menagerie, like a pet.
