I am becoming addicted to Philippa Gregory's novels. Impeccably researched and masterfully narrated stories of the women in the murderous court of Henry VIII, they hook the reader like a thriller. We know what happens to them, these women who are mostly used to further the ambition of the men in their families. They are killed, or discarded when no longer useful. Some lucky few escape, like Anne of Cleves and Mary Boleyn. Others, like little Katherine Howard, never stood a chance.

But it's Gregory's imagining of these women's inner voices that pulls us in. In this, the third of the Tudor Court series, the least-known of Henry's wives are given the ability to tell their own tale. Anne of Cleves is desperate to escape the cruelty and neglect of her family. Picked out by Thomas Cromwell as a means to ally England with Protestants in Europe, she is utterly unprepared for the real Henry Tudor. No longer the dashing prince beloved for his good looks and heroic sportsmanship, he rails in vain against his increasing age and toxic leg wound while gorging himself at dinner and lets himself believe Kitty, Anne's pretty young maid-in-waiting, is actually in love with him. Both women are treated appallingly by their families: neglected and ignored until they are seen to be of use. And now that Henry is able to remake England's laws and religion with impunity they, like all his subjects, are at his capricious mercy.

A third narrative voice comes in the person of Jane Boleyn, Lady Rochford, sister-in-law to Anne Boleyn and wife to George. Their ghosts haunt her, the bright, shining, most beautiful pair ever to be seen at court. The part Jane played in their deaths, and the role she now assumes in the Queen's chambers under the auspices of her uncle Thomas Howard, the Duke of Norfolk, tell a story of a woman desperate for some power of her own.

I've already reserved a copy of "The Taming of the Queen", Katherine Parr's story, from my library. Can't wait! ( )

Historical Fiction

The first in this series that I've read, and it's chiefly about the 4th and 5th wives of Henry VIII - Anne of Cleves (the German speaking Dutch wife, and the only one to survive the marriage without being accused of treason) and Katherine Howard (the young girl who took her place).

Told in several different voices, primarily Anne, Katherine and Jane Boleyn (Anne Boleyn's sister in law who helped send her to the scaffold) and the voices are different enough that it's easy to switch chapters and their narration. Anne of Cleves is shown to be intelligent to understand court and the danger of having such a man as a husband. Kitty is flighty and vain, able to turn a man's head but unable to recognise danger when it's in front of her. Jane is a manipulative, but ultimately blind-to-danger, and doesnt realise that she can be betrayed as soon as she stops being useful.

I dont know much about the wives of Henry VIII so unable to determine how much of the book is "poetic license" - as a fictional book, rather than a biography, I suspect a certain amount, but the book is no worse for it. It is a relatively easy read, especially once I got used to the chopping and changing beterrn all the different voices
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This book is fantastic at telling the more unknown side of the Tudors and it is wonderful to get to know these people better. In a time of fear and death only the lucky ones escaped and you would not have a second chance to be free. ( )

This book is fantastic at telling the more unknown side of the Tudors and it is wonderful to get to know these people better. In a time of fear and death only the lucky ones escaped and you would not have a second chance to be free. ( )