Music and Silence

I loved this book and read it really slowly.  It was like dark chocolate, a little goes a long way.  The story was  set in the King's court of Copenhagen in the 17th century and I  felt like I was there living amongst these characters. Denmark at this time was a cold remote place where people lived a life believing in myths and fantasies and I really felt the power of these in this book.  It was like Hans Christian Anderson for adults.
 The main character, who played the lute for the King, was British, handsome, talented, kind and in love with the Danish maid servant to the evil queen.  The king was highly educated and kind but naive and as ugly as a toad, and the women in it were mostly complete monsters. The King's mother hoarded up all her wealth and would do anything to hide it from her poor son. The way she hides her money and gold is hilarious.  His wife was a beautiful, intelligent, yet selfish bitch who was having an affair with a Lord and constantly getting drunk out of complete boredom. And there were other witches who held power through their cooking abilities, their sex drives or just through their desire to  just better themselves.
This book seemed more like a well written fairy story than anything too serious.  It had moments of complete bonkers madness in it and others of complete poetry. It was a book of absolute opposites:  Music and silence, love and hate, black and white, beauty and ugliness, modern thinking and belief in myths, funny and serious.
 Yes, it was great and to be honest I would quite happily read it all again! Rose Tremain writes like a dream. Thanks again Freia for the recommendation.  It's taken me about 4 months to get round to writing a review...but I haven't forgotten this book. Probably the best read of the year. (No, equal first with The Lacuna!)