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Oddly, this is the first book of Weir’s I’ve ever read, although I’ve heard about her for ages. It is of course, the story of Henry VIII’s third queen, and the only one to bear him a son. Weir takes a few U-turns around the more traditional stories of Jane.…
Bloody Mary, by Phil Carradice, is the story of Mary the first’s brief reign as Queen of England, from 1553 to 1558. While very many people have chronicled her half-sister Elizabeth’s reign, not so many have attempted to decipher how Mary attempted to reinstitute Catholicism in England after her father,…
First off, it’s a long book, so be prepared for that. The Butcher’s Daughter, by Victoria Glendinning, is unusual in that it illustrates the dissolution of the monasteries and abbeys in Henry VIII’s reign from the perspective of a nun inside an abbey, and all the trauma that brought. Rather…
My Husband, by Anne Elliott, has a different format from most historical novels. Rather than being full of action and dialog, the entire book is the reflection of a woman praying at a church where her late husband is buried, standing up. At first, this put me off and I…
I enjoyed Judith Arnopp’s other books, including the Beaufort Bride series, the Song of Heledd and the Kiss of the Concubine, about Anne Boleyn. She tells a good Tudor story. But I found the Winchester Goose somewhat contrived. It’s the story of a whore working in London in 1540, during…
Having read The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory, I thought I knew all I needed to about Margaret Beaufort, the grandmother of Henry VIII. This book, The Beaufort Bride, doesn’t uncover much in the way of new information, but it’s an entertaining read, written mostly from the perspective of a…
