Tudor Book Blog

I previously posted about the Tudor Book Challenge for 2010, which ranks its competitors on the number of Tudor related books they read throughout the year. I have joined this one, and am now joining another reading challenge! However, this one is strictly historical fiction, and includes all time periods. I will mostly focus on the Tudor period, but I will spread out a bit. We shall see!

Anyway, here is what the author says about it:

1. Anyone can join. You don’t need a blog to participate.
–Non-Bloggers: Include your information in the comment section.

6. When you sign up under Mr. Linky, put the direct link to the post about the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. Include the URL so that other participants can find join in and read your reviews and post.

And here’s the link to the full post where you can sign up!

A new book is coming out in March 2010 that I am super excited about!!!! The Companion series is publishing a Companion to Tudor Literature edited by Kent Cartwright. It’s “a collection of thirty-one newly commissioned essays focusing on English literature and culture from the reign of Henry VII in 1485 to the death of Elizabeth I in 1603.”

Here’s the amazon link. It allows you to “look inside!”

Here is another site featuring the book.

AC has posted a great review for Philippa Gregory’s novel The Boleyn Inheritance. This novel rotates between the viewpoints of Jane Boleyn (sister-in-law to Anne Boleyn), Katherine Howard (Henry’s fifth wife) and Anne of Cleves (Henry’s fourth wife). The review seems to like Gregory’s style, explaining that “has intricate, but easy -to-follow story lines and well-rounded characters. Her descriptions are lush, and we are drawn into her world. She recreates this period well. It is not just a façade of history, as some authors use. She does more than set the books in castles and dress her characters in medieval clothes. She really seeks to understand and portray what it was like to live in that time period.”

This review goes into a lot of detail about the book and well worth the read, especially if you like Gregory’s works!

Here’s the link to the full review.

Historian Robert Hutchinson, author of The Last Days of Henry VIII, has chosen “to write about the little known, but just as fascinating events of Henry’s later years. These were the years, particularly after the death of Jane Seymour, that Henry became a bloated, paranoid, psychotic monster who was a danger to everyone around him. It was also a time when English Protestantism began its bloody birth.”

According to this review from AC, “Hutchinson spends a lot of time on Henry’s declining health and how it might have affected the old King’s mind.” Surprisingly, the review claims that one cannot help but “feel a little sympathy for the tyrant. Between ulcerated legs brought on possibly by deep vein thrombosis and what Hutchinson theorizes is Cushings Syndrome, a horrible disease that affects body fat and bones, the King’s last years must have been sheer agony. Even without the psychological effects of his ailments, the pain alone would make anyone bad tempered.”

I throughly enjoyed this book, especially because it focuses on another aspect of the King’s life besides his “Great Matter” (though of course I find myself constantly reading about this too! ).

The review is very good and gives a lot of detail on the book. It is two pages long, so don’t miss the “next page” at the bottom of the article. Here’s the link!

Since the reign of Edward III, England had a claim to the city of Calais in northern France. Calais became an important military post for England, as well as a key spot for communications with the continent. It is also the location of the famous Cloth of Gold summit between Henry VIII and Francois I, king of France in 1520. However, in 1558 Calais was won back by the French.

The Book of the Week this week is The Chronicle of Calais In the Reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII to the Year 1540. It offers many valuable primary sources and focus on many of the important events of these years, including letters from these two kings, information on The Field of Cloth of Gold (1520), the marriage of Princess Mary to Louis XII, the campaigns of Henry VIII in France, and much much more!

This book was recently rereleased this past year, but Google Books has it online which you can peruse full text! Here’s the link.

For ordering information, both amazon us and uk have the book for a reasonable price. However they don’t have any reviews or much product information.

I’m not really sure how I ran across this book, but with my history background a book full of primary sources just fascinated me!

I haven’t posted about Mantel in a while, so I thought I would share this! This “interview” (more like an article) discusses Mantel’s views of her characters and works. According to the article, Mantel said, “what made me sure that I could work with Cromwell was a letter he wrote to a friend in 1520s…It is a huge rhetorical description of the course of the British parliament…however, ended with a simple sentence. Let me paraphrase it - ‘at the end of it (proceedings), absolutely nothing changed’. The wry humour of the letter showed me there was a personality I could write about…”

She also says that “’the art to write a historical novel - if there’s one - lies in grasping why things happened and then forgetting the reasons.’”

It is a really interesting article. Here’s the link.

Happy Christmas to all my readers! I really appreciate your support and wonderful comments! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season!

And for you reading pleasure, here’s a really interesting article about Christmas with Henry VIII throughout his reign! Merry Christmas!

I have a special treat for you this Christmas, but am waiting until tomorrow to give it to you! I unfortunately won’t be able to update regularly this upcoming week because I will be on a cruise with my family (I know, poor me!) But I will update as soon as I get back!

In the meantime, Pickii has posted the Top Ten Reviews of The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn by Alison Weir.

Here’s the link.

I found a really interesting article about Katherine Parr’s Prayer Book currently being held at Kendal. The article offers a really interesting story about the acquisition of the book, as well as offers some great pictures of it! It is so small!

Here’s the link.

Don’t over look the voice recording interview on the right. It gives a lot more detail about the book!

Here is a novel I have recently ran across. I hadn’t heard of it before so I thought I would highlight it!

The novel is titled The Quality of Mercy and written by Faye Kellerman. Rather than focusing on a Tudor monarch or the royal court it focuses on a Spanish-Jewish family who have immigrated to England and are posing as Anglicans during the reign of Elizabeth I. It was originally published in 1989, but rereleased this past April.

According to amazon the story follows the “beautiful and intelligent heroine, Rebecca Lopez, and her family…who practice their faith in secret. Rebecca’s father, Roderigo, the queen’s personal physician, leads a clandestine movement committed to smuggling Jews out of Spain. Rebecca’s betrothed has just died during a mission and, though she mourns him, she yearns to be independent, to remain unmarried. Meanwhile, the young actor-playwright William Shakespeare is seeking revenge for the murder of his mentor, Harry Whitman. He decides to retrace his friend’s last days in hopes of discovering clues to the killer’s identity. Intent on different endeavors, Will and Rebecca eventually cross paths, changing their lives forever. Deft characterization and dazzling prose evoke the ambiance of the period. More than just a mystery, the novel is a spectacular epic–romantic, bawdy, witty and abounding with adventure.”

Here’s the amazon link. It has the “look inside” feature!

Her Mother’s Daughter

The Literate House Wife Review has written up a nice review for Julianne Lee’s new novel Her Mother’s Daughter. According to the review, “Julianne Lee used the Bloody Mary folklore to encompass her story of the life of Queen Mary Tudor…all too aware of Mary’s reputation, [Lee] set out to write an even-handed novel about this Tudor monarch. Was she at heart an irrational, murderous woman or did she become the Queen she became due to her circumstances?”

Looks really good! I haven’t read many novels focusing on Mary, so I am pretty interested in getting my hands on this one.

Here’s the link to the full review.

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Secrets of the Tudor Court: Between Two Queens

This is the second installment of Kate Emerson’s Secrets of the Tudor Court Series. The book follows Anne “Nan” Basset, a fairly obscure mistress of Henry VIII. The Burton Review has done a nice synopsis and review on the new book, due out Jan. 2010.

According to the review, the “novel weaves its way through the everyday court life, with comings and goings as we learn more about how life was during the period…But we are treated to more than just the coquettish ways of the courtiers: the author cleverly inserts facts of the times such as habits and foods, and the politics of the factions within the court as well.” Apparently, Katheryn Howard makes her debute who, according to the Burton review she is portrayed “more as shrewd young woman rather than the naive twit that we are used to.”

For more on Nan’s story as well as the other details from the novel, here’s the link to the full review.

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The Boleyn Inheritance

Here is an interesting “review.” The author of the article has taken the novel and compared it with the actual historical facts. Here the author is able to compare history and fiction, concluding that Gregory has done a pretty good job with this particular novel. I have not personally read this one but have had it on my “to-read” for a while. I was actually pleasantly surprised with The Other Boleyn Girl, so I am hoping to be the same with this one!

Here’s the link to the full article.

The Anne Boleyn Files has posted a new review for one of my favorite novels, The Autobiography of Henry VIII. It is reviewed by Christine Nicole Kimmell. After reading so many novels from the point of view of his wives, it’s really refreshing to read one from Henry’s!

According to the reviewer, “Henry’s personality is also much more deeply explored than I’ve ever read before. Rather than building upon his already well known public persona, the author takes the time to show some of Henry’s insecurities that he may have been trying to hide beneath the pomp and grandeur of his image.” I do agree with her, however, that the relationship with Anne Boleyn in the novel is not my favorite…but then again it is from Henry’s point of view!

Here’s the link.

A new biography on Catherine (Katheryn) Howard has come out this past year in the UK. It is by Lacy Baldwin Smith, a historian who has written many books on Henry VIII and his court such as Henry VIII: Mask of Royalty. Baldwin Smith “narrates the rise and fall of the most tragic of Henry’s queens, the woman who dared to cuckold the king of England.”

Here’s the amazon link.

The hard cover version is already out, but the paper back version is due out on Feb. 28 2010.

Brandy Purdy is the author of the new novel The Boleyn Wife, following the life of Jane Boleyn, the infamous Lady Rochford, wife of George Boleyn. The That’s All She Read blog is hosting a lovely interview with Purdy where she discusses things like how she tells the familiar stories of Anne Boleyn and Katheryn Howard in a new and unique way, her character’s motivations for all the really awful things done, etc.

Here’s the link to the full interview.

I found a great article from the New York Times discussing Alison Weir’s recently released book following the down fall of Anne titled The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn.

The article focuses mainly on this new book, explaining that “Ms. Weir sets out to study one four-month period at particularly close range and to search for the truth by examining primary sources. The narrow range of “The Lady in the Tower” extends from the death of Anne’s predecessor, Katherine of Aragon, in January of 1536 to Anne’s beheading in May of that year. Ms. Weir takes an investigative approach to the forces that toppled Anne from favor and led to her trial and execution.”

However, despite Weir’s focus, the book ”does not hedge its bets about Anne’s relative innocence and culpability, nor does it foster any illusions about the romanticizing of her story. What if Anne had outsmarted her enemies and survived into old age? ‘It is virtually certain,’ Ms. Weir concludes, ‘that, dying in her bed, she would not have enjoyed the charismatic, romantic posthumous reputation that is hers today.’”

Here’s the link.

Somehow I missed this a while back…in Sept. Gregory did an interview with CNN, discussing her new novel The White Queen. There is a video of this interview on her site.

Here’s the link!

The Burton Review has done a nice, long review for Alison Weir’s latest work The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn. She concludes that this “book is a treasure trove of encyclopedia-like facts regarding Anne and her contemporaries, but those who enjoy the drama of Anne’s demise may feel a bit over loaded with the many names, dates and facts, who said what and when. Yet, it is these minute details that Weir divulges which make this a wonderful read for the Tudor fanatic due to the unveiling of lesser-known ideas.”

She does have some “gripes” about it, but over-all seemed to really enjoy it. Can’t wait to get my hands on it!

Here’s the link to the full review.

Hisotrical-Fiction.com has done a wonderful author highlight on Norah Lofts. She wrote books such as The King’s Pleasure (following the story of Katherine of Aragon) and The Concubine (following the story of Anne Boleyn). The post does mini reviews for these two works as well as a few of her other novels.

Here’s the link to the full post.

I have found two new reviews for books that I haven’t really run across reviews for.

1) Henry VIII: Virtuous Prince by David Starkey

I have been dying to read this one, but couldn’t spend the money on it last time I was in England (the pound vs the dollar is really bad) but I just bought it today! Anyway, I ran across this review for it this afternoon. It discusses the good and bad things about the book, focusing on what the reviewer didn’t like (the abrupt end in 1512, not much on Wolsey, etc.) The reviewer also explains that the book really focuses on Henry’s childhood.

Here is the link to the new review.

And just for your reading pleasure, here is the link to the Telegraph review for the book!

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2) Foxe’s Book of Martyrs is quite old, written in the later part of the 1500’s by John Foxe. An Arrow Through the Air Blog has recently reviewed it, giving a very detailed overview of the book. He concludes that the “language is archaic, as is the organization (lack of subheadings, extremely long paragraphs), so it is a difficult read” but did “enlighten” him and made him come away with a dislike of Queen Mary I. But remember, it was written in a time when Protestants and Catholics were in a bitter battle for England…so it is extremely biased! But as far as primary sources go, it is an interesting read!

Here’s the link.

Here is a new review for The Sisters Who Would be Queen by Leanda de Lisle. The review gives some background on the book as well as offers some of the differences between the UK and US editions of the book!

Here’s the link.

2. The White Queen by Philippa Gregory

Here is a new review for Gregory’s latest novel about Queen Elizabeth Wydville from the 30 Great Books Blog. The reviewer seems to have really liked the book, but does have one good criticism.

Here’s the link.

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3. Elizabeth’s Women by Tracy Borman

Kimberly Eve has written a great review for Elizabeth’s Women. She gives a good overview of the book, and ends with some of her favorite stories from Elizabeth’s life. I agree with her that one of the most interesting was that “Elizabeth I insisted that every aspect of her mother Anne Boleyn’s coronation be copied from the dress to the scepter she held to the falcon emblem representing the Boleyn’s even the style of Elizabeth’s hair being worn long and down her back.” Fascinating!

Here’s the link to the full review.

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4. The last review for tonight is of The Boleyn Wife by Brandy Purdy. The review is good, giving a nice overview of the book.

Here’s the link.

Speaking of the Boleyn Wife, just for some clarification, The Boleyn Wife by Brandy Purdy is the same book as The Tudor Wife by Emily Purdy. The Tudor Wife is the UK Edition. I really like its cover (below)!