LETTERS

Fantastic article by Susan Spano [“Chasing the Ghost of Mary,” March 1]. I had to read it with a dictionary in one hand; she has an impressive vocabulary and writing style. I’ve been to Scotland before, but her guide will make the next trip more rewarding.

Bill Yount

Venice

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I wonder if Susan Spano has any idea how much pleasure her writing brings us. My wife and I have spent a good part of the last 37 years reading about and traveling to foreign sites. (In three weeks we will be off to Cuba and then, in September, to Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.)

No one we read makes each site come more alive or be more intriguing or more inviting. This morning I put down the Travel section, went online and ordered Antonia Fraser’s “Mary Queen of Scots.” Spano’s fault entirely.

Gordon and Lois Cohn

Long Beach

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I have just finished reading “Chasing the Ghost of Mary.” I loved the story. I am a retired rabbi and with my wife, Lillian, have traveled extensively. Unfortunately, we did not get to Scotland. Spano makes reference to the historical novels she devoured as a girl. Do you think an 85-year-old man who loves historical novels might be interested in any of the books she remembers?

Rabbi Harry A. Roth

Los Angeles

Susan Spano writes: Dame Dorothy Dunnett wrote the best historical fiction about Scotland in the early Renaissance: “The Lymond Chronicles” and “The House of Niccolo,” two multi-novel series. The first two books of the former concern Mary, Queen of Scots.