1. What did you most enjoy about The Spymaster’s Daughter?
2. What character did you like the most? The least?
3. Are there any details about Queen Elizabeth that you find particularly intriguing?
4. Would you have liked to live during the Tudor period? What about it would you have liked the most? The least?
5. If you’d been part of a family that Queen Elizabeth intended to visit on her “progress,” would you have gone all-out to host her, even to the extent of bankrupting yourself, or would you have quickly left town and pretended to know nothing of her impending visit?
6. Mary, queen of Scots is portrayed in a mostly negative light in this novel. Have you read other books, or seen plays or movies, in which she comes across as a more appealing and sympathetic character?
7. What do you think was really going on in Elizabeth’s relationship with the Earl of Essex?
8. Elizabeth I is generally considered to be a great queen. How does her behavior in the novel support or undercut this idea? What qualities do you think a great ruler needs? Does a woman ruler need different qualities than a man?
9. What do you think happens to Frances after the novel ends?
10. Which actors would you choose to play the major characters in the movie version?
11. How does the book compare to other Tudor-set novels you’ve read?
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