Tudor Book Blog

Here are a few Upcoming Releases:

The Tudors: The Complete Story of England’s Most Notorious Dynasty by G.J. Meyer is being released this month! On Feb. 15th it will be available in the UK (here’s the amazon uk link) and on Feb. 23rd it will be available in the US (here’s the amazon us link). I’m hoping to get my hands on this one soon and hopefully review it!

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Linda Porter’s biography of Catherine Parr, titled Katherine the Queen: The Remarkable Life of Katherine Parr, comes out in March. Here’s the amazon.uk link.

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The next part of David Starkey’s biography of Henry VIII, titled Model of a Tyrant, is being released in the UK in October. Sadly I’m not sure when it will be released in the US! Here’s the amazon.uk link.

The product description states: “How and why did Henry VIII turn from a glamorous Renaissance prince into this country’s greatest tyrant? David Starkey’s magisterial concluding biography, published to coincide with the 500th anniversary of Henry’s accession to the throne, tells this remarkable, bloodthirsty story. When Henry VIII came to throne in 1509, he had already distinguished himself as a scholar, musician and athlete. So how did this glamorous young Renaissance prince become this country’s greatest tyrant? Desperate to cement his claim to the throne, Henry quickly became frustrated by the lack of a male heir from his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. His impatience increased after he became infatuated with the beautiful Anne Boleyn. When Anne refused to become his mistress, a desperate Henry was forced to take action that would set the course of British history for the next 500 years. In a move that would have fateful consequences for all involved, Henry ordered his lifelong friend Thomas More to implement religious changes that would allow him to remarry. The resulting establishment of the Church of England catapulted Henry to the height of his personal power and led to More’s death.Catherine was dismissed, Anne was ushered in, and so began the bloody cycle of marriage, divorce and execution for Henry is still remembered today. And yet behind this brutal history was a man traumatised by bitter divorce. David Starkey’s magisterial concluding biography of this most complex of British kings, published to coincide with the 500th anniversary of Henry’s accession to the throne, tells the bloodstained story of his remarkable shift from humanist prince to all-powerful despot during one of the most vivid and significant periods of British history.

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Amazon.com graciously informed me today that Tudor Court Culture ed. by Thomas Betteridge and Anna Riehl will be available Feb. 28th in the US. This is “an interdisciplinary volume that examines the cultural history of the court and its possible interpretations from the early 1500s to the end of the reign of Elizabeth I. The history of Tudor court culture during the sixteenth century is a movement of the court beyond its physical confines out into the country so that courtliness becomes more a state of mind, a way of behaving, a language, and a symbol. The first part of this collection investigates issues in relation to the court of Henry VIII: the ongoing negotiation of the discrepancies between the ideal and the real, desired and granted, imagined and perceived. The second part explores the changing conditions of the court and assesses the extent of the centrifugal influence of the court culture during the reign of Elizabeth I.” It looks really interesting! I think I would really enjoy reading this. Here’s the amazon link for more info.

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Now for some reviews:

The Heretic’s Wife by Brenda Rickman Vantrease has been reviewed by the NY Times this week. Here’s what they say:

“The Heretic’s Wife Brenda Rickman Vantrease. St. Martin’s, $25.99 (416p) ISBN 978-0-312-38699-3
Tudor England is a dangerous place to harbor Lutheran sympathies, yet brave souls like John Gough and his sister Kate smuggle protestant bibles into the country and translate them into English for the common man. When Gough is arrested, he recants, but Kate continues on with the mission, falling in love with translator John Frith, who takes her with him into exile in Antwerp. Meanwhile in England, Henry VIII is drifting slowly away from the Catholic faith under the influence of his mistress Anne Boleyn, while Thomas More becomes more and more obsessed with burning heretics and keeping England in the bosom of the church. No one with protestant beliefs is safe, including Kate and her husband, who may pay the ultimate price for their heresy. This is a strong historical, showing another side of the tempestuous Tudor times. Boleyn and Henry VIII, often the focus of these stories, are sideline figures, and the common folk who truly suffered under the intolerance of the regime take center stage while the saintly More is given shockingly brutal treatment. Tudor fans will be pleased and excited by this fresh approach. (Apr.)”

Here’s the link to the post.

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Here is a nice review for Philippa Gregory’s The Other Boleyn Girl. It’s from stevereads blog and really detailed with some nice excerpts from the novel. He states that “Despite the cavils of historical critics, there’s a good deal of accurate research at the back of this book. But its main delight comes in it quick exchanges of dialogue…” Here’s the link. It’s a really good read!

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The Novel Duchess at Tudor Literature Place has written up a nice review for The King’s Rose, Alisa Libby’s first novel focusing on Katheryn Howard. She says that “There were a lot of private thoughts and emotions conveyed in this book. I can see why it was written for the young adult audience, because Katherine was only a teenager, and a lot of her thought processes and experiences with sexuality and being taken advantage of are themes that a lot of young women can relate to.” Here’s the link to the full review.

I mentioned this over at the News Board, but wanted to make sure to mention it here as well: The National Gallery in London is holding an amazing exhibit focused on Jane Grey in artwork. To read more about the Jane Grey Exhibit, go here. Also, here’s the link to the exhibit page on the National Portrait Gallery’s site.

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I have found a nice summery of the historical mystery Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey, in which an investigators looks into the murder of The Princes in the Tower. Here’s the link.

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Lady Gwyn has written a review for Kate Emerson’s latest novel in her series Secrets of the Tudor Court: Between Two Queens. She seems to have enjoyed the first book in the series, but not so much this one. Lady Gwyn explains that “The main character, Anne Bassett, annoyed me throughout with her constant assessment of the men around her as marriage material: are they wealthy? do they have land? do they have a title? I understand that women of a certain social rank during this period did look for that in a man but she was so arrogant about it that it really made me dislike her.” Here’s the link to the full review. Warning! It contains spoilers!

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Here’s the link to a nice post about Antonia Fraser and her book The Six Wives of Henry VIII. I personally adore this book (and any other books written by her!). The post features a brief view of the book, as well as some information on other non-fictions books by Fraser.

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Brandy Purdy’s novel Vengeance is Mine has been reviewed over at the At Home With and Good Book and the Cat Blog. The reviewer didn’t give it a very good review, only earning 2/5 stars. The reviewer says that “If you’re looking for a very fictional take on Anne and Henry and don’t care about historical accuracy this might suit as a quick and easy read, but on the other hand this book isn’t going to provide you with anything new on the matter either.” Here’s the link to the full review.

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I ran across an article about the famous French writer Michel de Montaigne .I didn’t know this, but he was born the same year as Elizabeth I. It is a quick read which compares Montaigne with Elizabeth as well as offers the theory that Shakespeare may have even based the character Hamlet on Montaigne.
Here’s the link to the full article.

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The History Faculty has put together a short reading list for Tudor books. They cover topics from general Tudor history to specific monarchs. It’s interesting to look through the lists and read the short blurp on each book. Here’s the link.

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Here is a review for The Lady Elizabeth by Alison Weir. This novel follows the young Elizabeth up until her accession to the throne.

The review gives a good synopsis of the book, as well as compares it to Weir’s first novel Innocent Traitor. The reviewer concludes that “Innocent Traitor was good, but the dogmatic, slightly priggish Lady Jane Grey isn’t as interesting of a character as the brilliant and vivacious Elizabeth. Weir also stays with Elizabeth’s point of view, which gives the book a more unified feel than the shifting narration of Innocent Traitor.

Here’s the link to the full review.

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Speaking of the young Elizabeth, Kimberly Eve has written up  a nice review for The Queen’s Governess by Karen Harper. At one point she states that because the novel is “written from the female perspective, the author keeps the relationships between King Henry VIII and his men of the privy council i.e. Thomas Cromwell, Chapuys, and Cardinal Wolsey, quite interesting by cutting the sometimes dullish politics of the sixteenth century with the varied daliances and romances of these men! Making for a sometimes saucy read as well.”

Here’s the link to the full review.

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Robin Maxwell, author of several historical fiction books including The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn, Virgin: Prelude to the Throne, and my personal favorite Mademoiselle Boleyn, has written an interesting article about her journey through writing in the internet world. Here, Maxwell explains, “I’ve gone from the ponderous national “on the ground” book tour to a virtual book tour; from newspaper features to a Facebook fan page; from an author photo in a press kit to an author video on YouTube; from print advertising to an iPhone app.”

It’s a really interesting read as Maxwell goes from her first book The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn to her latest O, Juliet.

Here’s the link to her article.

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Speaking of Robin Maxwell, Enchanted by Josephine has written up a nice review for Virgin: Prelude to the Throne. According to the review, “Virgin, is a must read for all Elizabethan fans and historians who feel there is a missing link in Elizabeth’s life.  Robin Maxwell has helped put the pieces together for me and now Elizabeth appears as a whole new different person. Her depth in character, her choices in life, her destiny and her ruling have roots from a far deeper place. I understand her so much better.”

She is also offering a giveaway of Maxwell’s latest work O, Juliet! Here’s the link.

Before I get into some of the new reviews I have found, here is “Eight Questions for Robin Maxwell”, an interview with the author of several novels including Virgin: Prelude to the Throne, The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn, and Mademoiselle Boleyn. In the interview she discusses what drew her to write historical fiction, how she conducts her research, and a bit about her latest novel O, Juliette. Here’s the link to the full interview.

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Now for some reviews:

The first I want to share is a really interesting review for The Marlow-Shakespeare Connection: A New Study of the Authorship Question by Samuel L. Blumenfeld. This book discusses the theory that Marlow was actually the “Shakespeare.” Blumenfeld uses a text written in Greene’s Groatsworth of Wit which states that “’there is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tygers hart wrapt in a Players hyde, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blanke verse as the best of you: and being an absolute Iohannes fac totum, is in his owne conceit the only Shake-scene in a countrey’” (B.H. Blackwell, Oxford, 1919, pp. 72-73).
Stratfordians have seized upon this reference in Greene’s text as clear evidence that the “‘upstart Crow,’” a term referring to one who borrows his/her ideas from others, is Shakespeare. For them, this is confirmed by the similarities between the words “’Shake-scene’” and “’Shakespeare.’” It’s a great review and offers some really interesting ideas. Here’s the link to the review, and the amazon UK link for the book.

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Word Wenches (love the name!) has written up a nice post on Karen Harper and her new novel The Queen’s Governess. This review does contain some spoilers about the end of the book, so beware!

Here’s the link.

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Quick write-up of Alison Weir’s The Six Wives of Henry VIII. Here’s the link.

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Speaking of Weir, The Book Experiment and Books and Authors have written up short articles on Alison Weir’s latest work The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn. I know I have posted a lot on this book lately, but I am a huge Anne Boleyn fan and find myself really enjoying Weir’s books!

Here’s the link to The Book Experiment write-up. And here’s the link to the Books and Authors write-up.

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Speaking of The Lady in the Tower, I recently won a book giveaway at Anna’s Book Blog for this book! Yay! I’m super excited to read it and review it for the site! Here’s the link to Anna’s Book Blog. It’s a great site for reviews, giveaways, and upcoming book news.

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I have found a new review for Jane Boleyn: The Infamous Lady Rochford by Julia Fox. The review explains that “According to Fox, royal historians needing to spin history to favor both the queens and the king used Jane as a scapegoat, recasting her as a manipulating woman who designed both Anne Boleyn’s and Catherine Howard’s falls. Using original sources, Fox found no condemnation of Jane in her lifetime.”

Here’s the link to the full review.

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Here are two new Philippa Gregory Reviews: The first is from Livin’ the Dream and is of The Boleyn Inheritance and the second is for The White Queen.

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In other book news, Catherine Parr by Elizabeth Norton was released yesterday (Jan. 31)!

I have always been intrigued by the mystery of the Princes in the Tower. Whenever I run across something dealing with them I can’t help but eat it up! I won’t go into my theories about them now, but I did want to share a novel that I hadn’t realized was about them before (not really sure how I missed that…). To The Tower Born by Robin Maxwell deals with this age old mystery, but rather than blaming Richard III or even Henry VII she raises a new character, Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII. According to a review I found on the novel, “To the Tower Born suggests that one of the most intelligent and powerful women in England was behind the plot: Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII and grandmother to Henry VIII. The book suggests that Richard III was completely innocent of the situation and put the princes in the Tower strictly because he believed they would be safer there. (When most people think of the Tower of London, they think of only prison cells and torture. The Tower was originally a palace, and when the two princes were taken there, they were not kept in a prison cell but resided in the royal quarters.) She also suggests a rescue mission, where the main characters stumble across the boys in a prison cell below one of Margaret Beaufort’s residences and attempt to smuggle them out of the country. Edward does not make it due to sickness, but Richard is secretly sent to live with his royal relations in Burgundy.”

Here’s the link to the review, and here is the amazon link for more info. on this novel. It looks really fascinating and I really would like to read it and get a new theory on who killed the fateful Princes in the Tower.

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There are many other books and novels dealing with this mystery, as well as many theories. I posted a while back on the Tudor News Board about one theory I ran across at the Richard III museum in York last year. Here’s the link to the post. Basically some theorized that Richard did not kill the princes. It raises “the possibility that the princes were neither dead nor missing but had disappeared from public view with the knowledge and consent of the mother, her brother-in-law and, later, her son-in-law” with the younger brother ended up in the household of Thomas More! Art historians and symbolists have scrutinized the family portrait of More which some suggest has hidden symbols pointing to the fact that Richard, Duke of York is in the painting and  hiding his true identity in plain sight.

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Another theory is that Henry VII had the Princes killed. However, this is probably not very likely as the Princes disappeared long before Henry arrived in England. Rumors abounded that they were dead as early as 1483, with Richard doing nothing to stop them. He did not present them to the public, and completely remained silent on the issue. Thus, it is unlikely Henry VII had anything to do with it IF the Princes were dead at this time. It is possibly they remained in captivity until Henry returned to England, but very unlikely.

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Of course, the most well known theory is that the Princes’ uncle Richard III had them killed. A lot of people tend to believe this, however there is not a lot of hard evidence to prove he did it. For one, he had already had Parliament declare the boys illegitimate and unfit to rule. Legally, he was king. But with enemies always lurking nearby, his rule would have still be insecure with them alive. Here a lot of people interject the Duke of Buckingham. He was Richard’s right hand man and either could have been ordered to murder the Princes (some say by Richard) or taken the murder into his own hands to completely secure Richard’s reign (or maybe Henry VII’s?). Some theorize he could have been aiming to aid Henry VII because he and Richard had a falling out with Buckingham rebelling against Richard. This led to his execution.

Perhaps we will never know what really happened to them. Two bodies were found in the Tower in the 1600’s, but without DNA evidence, we shall never know if it is really them or not.

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A few other books you might find interesting if you want to know more on this topic:

The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey (fiction)

The Murders of Richard III by Elizabeth Peters (fiction)

The Princes in the Tower by Alison Weir (non-fiction)

The Trial of Richard III by Richard Drewett and Mark Redhead (non-fiction)

There have been two (that I know of) mock trials attempting to find Richard III guilty or innocent. The US Supreme court found Richard innocent due to insufficient evidence to prove his guilt. In Britain, Channel 4 had a four hour mock trial and also found Richard not guilty.

I found a new review for Diane Haeger’s The Queen’s Mistake, following the life of Katheryn Howard. According to the review, “Catherine was very unlikable in this novel; it was impossible to see anything deeper then her childish and one dimensional character.” The reviewer offers a good synopsis of the book as well as a copy of the famous letter Katheryn wrote Culpepper.

Here’s the link.

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There is a new article about Anne Boleyn, including info. on Alison Weir’s new book. According to the article, “it may have been innuendo that ruined Anne, creating around her a black climate that followed her when she stood before her judges. When Anne’s narrow body was put into an arrow chest and taken away for burial, the substance of the truth went with her.”

Here’s the link to the full article.

Speaking of Alison Weir, she will be giving a speech on Anne Boleyn (and a bit on Mary, Queen of Scots) at the Great Norther Hotel in Peterborough on Feb. 3rd.

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I also found a nice review for Alison Weir’s The Life of Elizabeth I. The review states that the biography “brings the private life of “the Virgin Queen” to the forefront.” The reviewer really liked the book and gives some great examples of things about Elizabeth I people often forget!

Here’s the link to the full review.

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I have a lot more to post, so I promise to get to it tomorrow!!!

A new novel is coming out in Feb. 2010 by Robert Winder. This novel follows William Shakespeare who is in the final
stages of his life. The “Final Act” is a fictional play Shakespeare is writing as the story progresses is considered his “master piece.” I have found two articles which tell a bit more detail about the book.

According to the first article from the Times Online, “not only has [Winder] produced a novel with Shakespeare as its principal character, he has also put into it the complete text of Shakespeare’s supposed last play….” The author of the review also talks about the play in the book. They state that “…at 100 pages long one quarter of the novel…It is, in fact, a remarkable pastiche. As a drama, it comes nowhere close to Shakespeare: its handling of timing and suspense are flawed. But as a poetic exercise it is powerfully sensuous.”

Here’s the link to the full article.

The second article compares the plot of this book with a new play titled Equivocation. The author states that “[Winder] makes so bold as to write a new ‘Shakespeare’ play, as it were, as part of the story. In the case of Equivocation, the play was a ‘True History of the Gunpowder Treason,’ and we only see a few small portions of it, all concocted from bits and pieces out of other Shakespeare plays, mainly Macbeth — which in Cain’s fictional world is the play Shag ends up writing instead as a sort of ‘equivocating’ (read: Safe, barely) slam at Tudor-Stuart religio-politics. But Winder, in a case of jaw-dropping chutzpah, apparently does Cain one better and writes a whole damn new ‘Shakespeare’ play…” titled The Tragicall History of Henry VII.

Here’s the link to the full article.

For more, here is the amazon link.

Sorry it has been quiet here for the last couple of days! School is really starting to pick up but I am going to try to post something everyday or at least every other day.

To start off with, I am working on some reviews for a few books I have be graciously sent by authors and publishers! I’m super excited about them and spending a lot of time reading! The first book I will review is Robert Parry’s The Virgin and the Crab. I am LOVING it so far! It is a really great book and I can’t wait to finish and write up my review for you. Next I will review The Sisters Who Would be Queen which follows the lives of the Grey sisters. This is courtesy of Random House Publishing. I have been dying to get my hands on this one for a while so I am very excited about it! And lastly, I am being sent an advanced copy of Secrets of the Tudor Court by D.L. Bogdan. It follows the life of Mary Howard, who enters the service of Anne Boleyn. It will be released in May 2010.

I am excited about finally writing some of my own reviews for the site! On the side, I also have Henry Virtuous Prince by David Starkey and Secrets of the Tudor Court: The Pleasure Palace to review as well! I am almost finished with Henry and about halfway through with Secrets… so I intend on doing a lot of reading this weekend and finishing some of these and writing up the reviews asap!

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Now, speaking of review, I have a couple for you:

1) I have found a review for Karen Lindsey’s Divorced, Beheaded, Survived…A Feminist Reinterpretation of the Six Wives of Henry VIII. According to the review, Lindsey raises some interesting points about the women in Henry’s life. The reviewer explains that “the modern topic of sexual harassment in the workplace could be relevant here. After all, if you consider being lady-in-waiting to the Queen as a job, then the unwelcome attentions of the King were very much in the harassment mould. And certainly over time the focus of largely male historians has been on poor old Henry having all these wanton young women thrust at him, and under those circumstances what’s a man to do?  The fact that most of these women were positioned at court by their ambitious families hoping that their girl would catch Henry’s eye and attract a good marriage as a former mistress of the King has been, if not overlooked, then certainly not given the prominence by earlier historians that it perhaps should have.”

It is a good review, and really makes me want to read this book. I have heard good things about it in the past, so I can hopefully get to it soon!

Here’s the link to the full review.

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2) Here is another review for Philippa Gregory’s latest work The White Queen. The reviewer raises an interesting point I hadn’t really thought of before, that “there is always a thread of magic: typically, Gregory endows her heroines with the Sight, a foretelling ability that goes beyond the merely pyschic, and even with the power to direct events through supernatural means. To me, this supernatural theme always sits a little uneasily on its historical background; yes, powerful women were often accused of witchcraft in the middle ages, but are we seriously invited to consider that a historically documented flood or storm may have been called up by sorcery?” Hum, thinking about some of Gregory’s other works, I can see this!

Here’s the link to the full review. The reviewer also goes into some about historical accuracy, etc

Alright, here is a bunch of random things I am compiling into one post to save a bit of time!

1) I have found a new review for Karen Harper’s latest novel The Queen’s Governess. It follows the life of Kat Ashley, one of Elizabeth I’s closest friends. The reviewer was brutally honest stating that “Sometimes I felt as though this novel read like a recitation of facts, not fiction based upon facts; and I felt that the novel jumped around a lot in time.” They offer a few other things they didn’t like as well. Here’s the link to the full review.

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2) I have also found a new review for The White Queen, Philippa Gregory’s latest novel. According to the review, “As with any piece of historical fiction, The White Queen involves a great measure of imaginative story-building. However, considering the sparseness of the records from that period, as well as the contradictory nature of those that have survived, such invention is excusable. Indeed the portrait that this Philippa Gregory book paints is of a period characterized by familial betrayal and often quite brutal violence, with the women largely responsible for the plotting while the men must go forth on the field of battle.”

Here’s the link.

Speaking of Philippa Gregory, I have found a list and mini-reviews of some of the author’s favorite Gregory works. Here’s the link.

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3) I have also found a review for Leanda de Lisle’s book The Sisters Who Would be Queen. It follows the story of the Grey sisters, the most famous of who is Lady Jane Grey the “Nine Days Queen.” According to the review, “The book covers a great deal of information and is an essential read for those who have an interest in The Tudors. We learn about the Grey family (as well as several other families whose histories are intertwined with them) through their relationships with the monarchs: Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, (Jane), Elizabeth I and finally James I.” Here’s the link to the full review.

Alison Weir’s latest work The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn has been in the news a lot this week!

First off, NPR has done an interview with Alison Weir. It will be available tonight at 7pm at the NPR site. The interview is taking place on the show All Things Considered with Guy Raz. Mean while, here is a link to an article telling a bit about the interview, including some of Weir’s reactions to some of the things she uncovered while researching the book. The article also gives a nice excerpt from chapter one.

Secondly, Hillary Mantel, author of Wolf Hall, has reviewed Weir’s work for the New York Times. In the article titled Anne Boleyn, Queen for a Day, Mantel states that “Anne is one of the most striking female presences in English history, but we can’t even be sure of her date of birth, let alone her bedroom secrets…Why are we so obsessed with understanding every detail of Anne Boleyn’s rise and fall? It is because her character has archetypal force. The story is of its time and place, but also universal. She is the young fertile beauty who displaces the menopausal wife. She is the mistress whose calculating methods beguile the married man; but in time he sees through her tricks and turns against her.” It is a really nice review where Mantel looks at Weir’s conclusions and some of the controversy of her sources. She also compares her findings to those of other Tudor historians such as David Starkey, Eric Ives, and Ritha Warnicke. She also examines Anne, and puts a bit of her own thought on the subject of Henry’s most famous wife.

Here’s the link to the full review.

Hist-fic-Chick is offering a book giveaway for those who run book blogs. The winner receives a copy of The Boleyn Wife by Brandy Purdy and are asked to review it on their site!

Here’s the link for those who want to enter!

Karen Harper’s latest novel The Queen’s Governess comes out today, so I have decided to highlight it!

The novel follows Katherine “Kat” Ashely, confident to Anne Boleyn and later governess to Elizabeth I. According to Harper’s website (and Publisher’s Weekly) “Ashley lives through the reigns of four Tudors—but Harper’s diligent research, realistic portrayal, and insider/outsider heroine will hook those who can’t get enough of England’s turbulent history. Readers familiar with the period will feel at home and even manage some sympathy for men like Cromwell and Henry VIII.” Here’s the link to her site.

Also, here is a nice article by Harper on why she is a Tudormaniac. She explains that the Tudors “are my favorite (almost my only) topic for my historical novels and a historical mystery series. Books I’ve written about them (with Elizabeth Tudor always involved) include THE FIRST BOLEYN, a book about Mary Boleyn written 20 years before Philippa Gregory’s THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL. (And with a very different take on the Boleyns.) I’ve also authored the nine-book The Queen Elizabeth I Mystery Series with Elizabeth as the amateur sleuth. Her Grace has also appeared at different stages of her life in Mistress Shakespeare; a novel I just completed, The Irish Princess; and she’s a key figure in my current release, The Queen’s Governess. In short, Elizabeth Tudor is my favorite historical figure with her totally dysfunctional family right beside her.”

Adventuring has posted a nice review for Joanna Denny’s Katherine Howard: A Tudor Conspiracy. The review concludes that “Denny’s book is easily accessible and the writing style is nice and clear, reading almost like a novel compared to the work of Starkey or Ives which may have a more ‘history textbook’ feel to them…Unfortunately what is a much needed biography is weighed down by unverified facts, that many historians have discounted as false.” To read more, here’s the link!

Here’s the amazon UK link. It offers the “Look Inside” feature!

This one has been out since Aug. 2009 but I just stumbled upon it the other day. According to the product details, “…the determined Stuart Winslow will go to any lengths to improve his social position. When his skills in weapons design and falconry secure a place for him in the court of King Henry VIII, he quickly learns that the court is really a wicked cauldron of vices, power plays, and temptations — some of them very much to his liking…In Honor in the Dust, bestselling author Gilbert Morris beautifully captures the tone of the Tudor period, chronicling the period’s excesses with skill and prudence…In this captivating historical drama, Stuart Winslow is caught between two worlds: one that promises material and worldly success and one that promises salvation. Is his faith strong enough to withstand such a challenge?”

Here’s the link to the review I found for the novel and here’s the amazon link.

I mentioned both of these a while back, but I have recently rediscovered them and thought I would post!

Katherine the Queen by Linda Porter “the first full-scale, accessible biography of this fascinating woman who was, in reality, one of the most influential and active queen consorts in English history.” It is being released in the US in March of this year. This is Porter’s second book. Her first was Mary Tudor: The First Queen.

Here’s the amazon link.

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In 1558 Amy Dudley died by an “accidental” fall down the stairs. Many people speculated that Elizabeth has something to do with it as she and Dudley were involved. According to the product review of this new book on the subject, “using newly discovered evidence from the archives, Christopher Skidmore is able to put an end to centuries of speculation as to the true causes of her death.” Hum, I wonder what his conclusions are! It should be an interesting read that I bet will spark some interesting debate.

This book will be released in Feb. of this year.

Here’s the amazon link.

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I am supper excited about this one! Antonia Fraser’s much anticipated biography of Elizabeth I will be released in Sept. 2011! I know, that is still pretty far away, but there is a nice product description up on amazon now. According to it, “Antonia Fraser’s magnificent biography of the Virgin Queen undermines many myths about this formidable monarch, and is at the same time a marvellously rich work of narrative history.”

No cover art yet, but I will post when I find it!

This book was just released on Jan. 15, 2010 in the UK and in Dec. in the USA. According to the brief product description, “The first book to examine Elizabeth I as a learned princess, Learned Queen examines Elizabeth’s own demonstrations of erudition alongside literary works produced by such political luminaries as Sir Philip Sidney and Robert Devereux, earl of Essex…this book reveals how poetry, foreign relations, and intellectual culture are far more integrated than we have hitherto imagined. From these connections emerges a methodology that places Elizabethan political culture and poetry fully on the transnational stage.”

It is written by Linda Shenk. I believe this to be her first book. I’m really interested to read this one. Elizabeth’s education has always fascinated me. She knew so many languages and was completing many scholarly works at such a young age!

I’m surprised that since it was just released there isn’t much more about it. If I run across anything I will post!

Here’s the amazon link.

This new book is a collaborated effort between editors Allison Whitelock and Alice Hunt. There isn’t much out about it yet, but it will be released in July 2010.

The blog Mary Tudor: Rennaisance Queen has posted articles that have been added including Woman, Warrior, Queen?, Dressed to Impress, and Examples and Admonitions: What Mary did for Elizabeth. Here’s the link to her post.

I will post more on this upcoming release as more info becomes available!

I found an article about one of (or perhaps the most) famous Tudor writers today. It focuses on the school of thought that “Shakespeare” might have not been William Shakespeare. I don’t know if I give much credence to this, but it is interesting to read!

This particular article raises a woman to the position of “Shakespeare,”  explaining that Amelia Bassano Lanier, a converso(clandestine Jew) and the illegitimate daughter of an Italian-born, Elizabethan court musician might have been it! The evidence is interesting, including that she was Shakespeare’s “dark lady of the sonnets” and that “she wrote the sonnets about herself; as with the plays, Shakespeare was simply a front used to hide her identity.” The author also adds the “prevalence of musical and northern Italian references in the plays, and even possible smatterings of Hebrew.” The article offers a lot of other possible bits of evidence as well as gives a nice mini-biography of Bassano. The article also offers a nice list of other “contenders.” I really enjoyed this article, whether I believe it or not!

Here’s the link.

I say “new” book, well to me at least, but not a new release!

The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe by Charles Nicholl is about the “Elizabethan playwright-poet Marlowe [who] was stabbed to death in 1593 at the age of 28, supposedly in a dispute over a tavern bill or ‘reckoning.’ In a painstaking piece of scholarship that reads like an intricate detective thriller, British author Nicholl argues that Marlowe was murderd by a court cabal orchestrated by Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, who viewed dramatist-spy Marlowe as an obstacle to his political ambitions.” Nicholl also investigates “Marlowe’s connections to espionage, concludes that he was a government spy, recruited while a Cambridge student, who informed on subversive Catholic loyalists.”

It seems to be really interesting, and I’d love to read the evidence Nicholl has collected to prove his theory!

Here’s the amazon link. It offers the feature of looking inside the book!