Yes, I’ve read the Norah Lofts book — I think I’ve read every Esther novel ever published, including one from about 1900 that took something like two pages of turgid prose to announce that it was early morning. Seriously.
I’ve just finished Angela Hunt’s Esther novel, one of her “Dangerous Beauty” series, and am eagerly awaiting her Bathsheba and her Delilah.
Thanks for the kind words about Ahasuerus; figuring out how to make him a nice character was tough. You’ll notice I had to start when he was born to do it!

Confession: my exposure to Bible stories has been pretty durned patchy, so I don’t actually know the story of Esther. I do know Judith and Holofernes, though, and I can talk about the Annunciation for frickin’ hours, and I know all sorts of Random Biblical Facts because they were popular artistic subjects and it’s kind of impossible to study art history without learning all about them.

Also, whenever anyone mentions Martin Luther I initially think they’re talking about Martin Luther King Jr and I have to perform a mental adjustment from “Civil Rights leader” to “Reformation guy.”

Ahahaha I promise I don’t dislike Lutherans! It’s only Martin Luther himself that I’m not SO wild about. In some areas! In other areas I support his endeavors.

Oh God, it must be SO hard to make Ahasuerus not be the Literal Worst, if you’re writing about both Vashti and Esther, and I thought you did an excellent job of it.

Have you read the Norah Lofts Esther book? My mum reports that it exists, and she says that version of Vashti is very vivid. Makes a nice contrast to the one in Behold Your Queen, as Gladys Malvern utterly dismisses her, poor thing. Meanwhile your kitty Vashti is absolutely gorgeous. I am not surprised she was the best cat in the world; she looks it.