Sarah A Morris

Terriffic read and a wonderful traveller's guide. The authors painstakingly detail every house and castle associated with Henry's wives, giving copious details of the women's lives in association with the dwelling, its subsequent history (sadly many no longer exist), and wonderful details about what to look for in the ones that you can visit, including contact details for the owners, how to get there, where to go to get the best views and even where to eat of drink in the neighbouring villages or suburbs. Clearly a labour of love and its shows. Highly recommended for all Tudor fans and those who just love historic sites.… (meer)

I first heard about this book only a few days ago because of the author, Sarah Morris', blog tour - she blogged on several blogs I read avidly & as a result of the tour, I found a couple new ones to read as well. I immediately hunted down her published & asked if I could get a review copy of "Le Temps Viendra" and was floored when the very next morning a copy arrived in my in-box! I immediately started reading (as soon as I learned how to transfer the book to my nook) & was hooked & read about 100 pages that first night, keeping my poor husband awake!

My next day's reading, however, lead me to be a bit disappointed. The phrase "I later learned" was used an awful lot in the first section when the modern day Anne is transported to the Tudor Anne's body. I understand that Morris is trying to explain a fact to us that modern day Anne couldn't begin to know at that point, but some of those things we could have been led to discover on our own (for example, modern day Anne explains that she later learned that Tudor Anne was very close to her mother, and in the very next scene, she's taken a bath & there's a great scene between her mother & Anne. This is a good example of not needing to TELL us Anne was close to her mom, when we could have discovered it for ourselves in the next & following scenes).

Once we get through that bit, however, the story really gets going. This is such a different spin on the usual historical fiction books - not time travel, but being transplanted into another person's body. There's a lot of time spent on comparing modern day England to the Tudor day England (at times, honestly, too much so, as I really am not interested in the modern day stuff). I did throughly enjoy the parts where modern day Anne speculates that Tudor Anne was famed for her intelligence or sex appeal because of the modern day Anne living in her body.

All in all, however, I can't say I really loved this book. It only covers a very short span of time - leaving room for the rest of the series - but drags a good deal in parts, especially the middle and early second half of the book.… (meer)

In The Footsteps of Anne Boleyn by Sarah Morris and Natalie Grueninger caught my eye as it combined my love of visiting old buildings with an ever more growing interest in Tudor history. (To be fair, the book had already caught my eye through facebook and twitter, but the sight of author Sarah Morris dressed as Anne Boleyn to sell the book at an open day at Bramshill meant I couldn’t resist buying it!) The authors have developed the wonderful idea of following the trail of Anne Boleyn’s life through the various buildings she lived in and visited from her childhood home, through her time in France and onto her travels with Henry VIII’s Court. It is fascinating to follow the rise and fall of Anne Boleyn in connection to the places the events occurred in.

Unfortunately many of the buildings Anne visited are no longer standing, but the authors do a wonderful job of describing what Anne would have experienced regardless of the current status of the site, enabling the reader to form a clear mental picture. Where possible, the authors highlight key things to see at each site and provide background information to each site and the evidence of Anne’s visit. I particularly enjoyed the section following the route of Anne’s Coronation Procession through the streets of London. I could picture the wonderful scene and plan on following the route myself one day.

The only downside of this book is that I now have a huge list of places I need to visit! Some of the places listed I have been to already, but now I feel the need to visit again with this wonderful guidebook in hand in order to view it through the eyes of a Tudor Queen.

For any reader interested in old castles, palaces and houses or in Tudor history, this book is an absolute must! Thank you to the authors for sharing your travels and research with me – can I join you on your next adventure please?!… (meer)