Alison Weir (1) (1951–)

Alison Weir has done a good job cobbling together the little evidence there is of Mary Boleyn's life. I enjoyed her thorough investigation and the opportunities she gives the reader to formulate your own opinion of the subject. Having read the disastrous The Other Boleyn Girl, which I found to be a romance retelling the scandalous gossip told by detractors of Anne Boleyn, I much appreciate Weir's clean telling of the facts as they are and the conjectures suggested by contemporary sources. This is not a rollicking romantic summer read, but a serious study of a woman who had far more impact than most realize.… (mais)

I seem to be having a bit of a Tudor moment, what with CJ Sampson's Matthew Shardlake and all. I started Innocent Traitor comparing it unfavourably with Sampson's work. But I found it in due course a real page-turner. The truly horrifying history of Jane Grey, the nine-days Queen is told through the eyes of many of the people involved in her life. Their individual voices are hard to distinguish one from the other, but their different views of aspects of the same tale make for interesting reading. There's Jane herself, quiet, studious but strong-minded, her loyal loving nurse, her dreadfully inhumane mother and the political entourage surrounding her. The characters are believable, and the story is a true one.

Alison Weir, an historian, has clearly enjoyed the opportunity, new to her, of fictionalising her account, putting words and thoughts into her characters' mouths and heads that can have no basis in hard historical fact. But she is so conversant with the period and the characters about whom she writes that the feel of the book is likely to be an accurate refection of this particularly unsavoury episode in English history. A very good if uncomfortable read.… (mais)

This is thorough and engaging account of Henry VIII’s time as king. As the title implies, it also covers members of his court, and it does not dwell on Henry’s life before he came to the throne.

Like all Alison Weir’s books, this is meticulously researched, yet in no way is it a hard-to-digest scholarly work.

Passages here and there didn’t hold my attention, but then the author covers a lot of ground, so other readers like myself may not be hooked on every topic. On the most part, though, this heavy tome is well worthwhile reading.… (mais)