I’ve just finished reading this book and I now have a new favourite author! It’s the story of Henry’s fourth and fifth wives – Anne of Cleves and Katherine Howard, and I didn’t realise how little I knew about these two until I read the book. The dramatisations and books always seem to concentrate on Anne Boleyn, skipping next to Mary and Elizabeth, but you would think having grown up in the English education system I would know all about Henry’s eight wives!
However, I realised upon starting the book that I couldn’t even remember what happened to the last five wives, which made it an even more interesting read since it was a real surprise when I found out the ending! I particularly didn’t realise how young Katherine Howard was. She was only sixteen when she married Henry who was fifty-four and a big bloated corpse of a man by that point, and it’s interesting to see the story from her point of view.
The author also uses some interesting techniques. For instance, the whole story is written from the perspectives of three women – Jane Boleyn (who was married to Anne Boleyn’s brother before he was taken to the scaffold), Anne of Cleves and Katherine Howard – which gives it a very different point of view to that usually told but also means we get to find out all the gossip behind the scenes.
Having watched the film The Other Boleyn Girl I was skeptical about reading Phillipa Gregory’s books since I found the film so dull. But the books are amazing!! I’m so glad I took the trouble to read this one, and I’ll be working my way through the others over the next couple of weeks!
Tags: Anne Boleyn, Anne of Cleves, Book, Court, England, Fiction, Henry VIII, History, Monarchy, Philippa Gregory, Reading, Review, Tudors
