Six Degrees of Separation – Missed it by a red hair’s breadth

Posted February 8, 2021 by elzaread in 6 Degrees of separation / 31 Comments

Greetings you all! We’ve missed the first Saturday of February by a hair’s breadth. As you know, this wonderful meme, hosted by Books are my Favorite and Best should actually happen on the first Saturday of the month and not the first Monday. Hair’s breadth. But let’s net split hairs about this and let’s just join in the fun!

 On the first Saturday of every month, a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. Books can be linked in obvious ways, for example: same authors, same era or genre, or books with similar themes or settings. Or you might choose to link them in more personal ways: books you read in the same holiday, books given to you by a particular friend or books that remind you of a particular time in your life. The choices are endless here!  

Our starting point for this month, is a book we’ve never seen before and know nothing about:

 

 
But that’s the wonder of this fun meme, you don’t need to know anything about the book to find an angle to start from. For us, it was the author’s first name (Anne) and of course, the redhead. 
 
Everybody’s favorite redhead Anne (with an ‘e), is of course
 
 
1st Degree – Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
 
None of our chosen books or characters are going to need much of an introduction. Still sticking to the first name Anne and the redheads, my Mommy’s mind wandered to Anne Boleyn. Not a redhead herself, but she was married to one of the most notorious redheads in history. 
 
 
Second Degree – Henry VIII from various books, but for purposes of this post, let’s stick with The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
 
Anne might have lost her head in more than one way on and over King Henry, but at least she gave us a redheaded queen who kept her head well on her shoulders.
 
 
Third Degree – Queen Elizabeth I, also from various books and I wanted to use The Virgin’s Lover by Philippa Gregory, but decided to rather go with I, Elizabeth by Rosalind Miles.
 
Now there’s a lot of things we can sing praise to the Virgin Queen, but in our humble opinion, the Elizabethan era is most famous for its theatre and William Shakespeare who composed plays that broke free of England’s past style of theatre. Therefore, our fourth degree will be a redhead from one of Mr. Shakespeare’s most famous plays.
 

 

Fourth Degree – Ophelia from Hamlet by William Shakespeare
We all know the tragic story of the potential-wife-to-be who goes a bit crazy with all the stupid antics of her would-be-king-potential-husband-to-be. She very much reminds me of another redheaded lady who finds herself in a similar situation.

 

 
At least she did become Queen eventually. But enough about all these royals or title bearers. It doesn’t appear as if a crown brought any of them much happiness. I would much rather be like Anne (with an ‘e’) Shirley and our last link to make up our chain of six degrees.

 

Sixth Degree – Pippi Longstocking from Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
 
Pippi is unconventional and superhumanly strong, she is able to lift her horse one-handed. Wonder what she would have done with Daenerys’ dragons…. Pippi also makes fun of unreasonable adults, especially if they are pompous and condescending. I believe she might have had the time of her life if she was a character in Game of Thrones.
We hope you’ve enjoyed our chain of redheads. Who did me miss here? We’ll get out of your hair now and go and pay a visit to the other participants of Six Degrees of Separation.
Lots of Love,

 

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31 responses to “Six Degrees of Separation – Missed it by a red hair’s breadth

  1. What a brilliant way to link from the first book – I would never have thought of Henry VIII or Elizabeth. And I love that painting of Ophelia – I’m always referring my (grown up!) children to it – though goodness knows why, as they’re about as impressed as they are when I start quoting Miss Jean Brodie every time we see Edinburgh Castle.

    I wondered if you had seen the TV adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, in which Anne Boleyn was brilliantly portrayed by Claire Foy, and Henry by Damian Lewis, who I think is probably a natural redhead. I still haven’t got round to reading the books (but I do love Mantel’s other work) but the TV series was outstanding.

    Thanks for such an interesting chain. Mine was almost as late as yours. It’s at:

    https://sconesandchaiseslongues.blogspot.com/2021/02/six-degrees-of-separation-february-2021.html

    • Hi Rosemary! No, I haven't seen Wolf Hall and believe it or not, I haven't read the book either. Yet! It's on by TBR and I hope to get to it somewhere. But for now, I am going to see if I can get the TV series.

      Glad you enjoyed our Six Degrees and I will hop over to you now.

      Have a good week!

    • Hi Heather! I thought you would appreciate this one. Sansa was a gorgeous redhead and if I were her, I would have just kept it red. My hair is back to it's natural strawberry blonde for the past couple of months and I'm not trying to make it as ash blonde anymore. Actually like it more now!

  2. This is wonderful. I'd forgotten that Henry VIII and Ophelia were also redheads, haha. And Sansa! You know, I've still not watched the last season for Game of Thrones, don't know why I've avoided it like the plague. Probably because I didn't want Daenerys to die.

    • Hi Lex! I've only read the first 3 books in the Game of Thrones series and only watched the first TV series. It really was too much for me. My husband watched them all though.

  3. I either didn't know or had forgotten that Henry and Elizabeth were redheads and I definitely didn't know about Ophelia. I didn't even think of the author Anne and the character Anne when I started my red-hair chain. But I have read all 6 of your book choices! Great minds think alike!

    • Hi Jen! I know! I saw that we had so many books that match. The first time that happened to me on this meme. Yea!! Inspiration for the redheads came when I saw the prompt in January already.

  4. Great chain! I don't think I have ever met Pippi! Now pipi is the French word we use for pee, for kids. So I was curious to see how they rename her for the French translation: Fifi Brindacier! I rally don't think I ever read her adventures, I need to add this to my classics!

    • Oh my gosh! That is so funny!!! We actually use a rather similar word in Afrikaans (piepie) and Fifi is a popular name for a small dog in SA. I've read Pippi Longstockings in Afrikaans when I was young and think I might need to read it now again too.

  5. How nice that you took your chain in the direction of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. I am interesting in that time in English history. And I had forgotten that they were redheads.

    Thanks for dropping by my Six Degrees post (TracyK at Bitter Tea and Mystery)