Helene Harrison, Historian and Author

Thanks to University of Hertfordshire Press for gifting me a copy for review.

Lady Anne Bacon wasn’t someone I knew a lot about. I’d heard the name as mother to Francis Bacon but that’s about it. I hadn’t even realised that her sister was Mildred Cecil, wife to William Cecil, Baron Burghley! So, I went into this basically blind as to who this woman was and what she had achieved.

She had quite an eventful life, spanning the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, Elizabeth I, and James I, certainly a woman of learning, publishing translations and dealing with legal and property matters when she was widowed. Spring makes excellent use of primary sources, particularly letters, to tell Anne Bacon’s story, placing it within the context of the times in which she was doing things, including the disputed reign of Lady Jane Grey and the Essex Rebellion.

There were a couple of minor errors, referring to the Earl of Norfolk when it was the Duke of Norfolk, and John Fisher described as an archbishop, when he was bishop or, later, cardinal. But these didn’t take away from the narrative.

It isn’t a particularly easy read; I think you need to be quite versed in the background of the period, and because Anne Bacon lived so long, there is a lot of history to know! But for someone who already has the background in the period, it is great to see some lesser-known figures like Anne Bacon being brought into the light. It is incredibly detailed in terms of family and court links, and her actions in terms of her property and religion. It really does cover Anne’s life from every conceivable angle.

I found the book fascinating with an interesting selection of photo plates in the centre and a comprehensive bibliography and index which make it easy to find references and look something else up later on, which is important. I really enjoy how these intelligent and learned women of the Tudor period are coming into the light, and we’re finding out more and more how active women are. Lady Anne Bacon is a fascinating addition.

I had never heard of Upnor Castle, until we were looking at English Heritage properties in and around Kent and this came up!

Today marks 2 years since the publication of my second book 'Tudor Executions: From Nobility to the Block' - how time flies!

I spoke to Adam Pennington about his work on the Plantagenet Poles.

What drew Adam to write about the Plantagenet Poles?

Why did Henry VIII take so long to act against the Pole family?

What a triumph of historical fiction! It’s rare to find a book that is so well-written and engaging yet with a very obvious historical accuracy. Garthwaite has done her research, going back to the primary sources to find what actually happened, and who was where when it did. Gaps in the evidence are filled but in a very believable and cohesive way.

I didn’t really know much about Cecily Neville and Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, other than them being the parents of Edward IV and Richard III, so it was really interesting to get to know them a bit better and see in more detail and a very engaging way how their lives unfolded. It was also interesting to see other characters from Cecily’s point of view. Books featuring Edward IV are usually written from the point of view of himself or Elizabeth Woodville, or in the third person, so it was fascinating to see a mother’s point of view of him growing up and his evolution into a man and king.

I also think that starting the story with the burning of Joan of Arc was a good foreshadowing of the story of Cecily’s life that will be told here, up to her son’s accession as Edward IV. It starts with violence and the violence builds in various stages throughout the book as we go through the conflicts and battles of the Wars of the Roses.

The novel doesn’t shy away from darker aspects, like the battles and looting, though there are minimal first-hand battle scenes as Cecily is at a remove from them, though there are many dark moments as Cecily loses children and other family members, and the ups and downs of the York family through fear, imprisonment, and death.

Thanks to Amberley Publishing for a copy to read and review.

This book intrigued me from the first time I heard about it. Writing a book myself at the moment about Henry VIII’s Great Matter I thought that this could be a very interesting alternative point of view, and one that hasn’t really been discussed in detail in any previous works I’ve read. It is quite engagingly written with an extensive bibliography.

There are very extensive notes, though a lot of this information would have been better in the main body of the text for context for those less versed in the subject. References should be used to reference texts, with small additions in my view. But there is a lot of information provided in the book and a good selection of images in the central plates as well. Rabow obviously knows his subject and has done extensive research which is evidenced throughout.

Rabow does seem to be very well-versed in Biblical interpretation and how it could have applied to Henry VIII’s attempts to get an annulment from Katherine of Aragon to marry Anne Boleyn. A lot of the Jewish theology goes over my head, if I’m honest, it took me long enough to grasp the Catholic and reformist angles on the divorce. The general Jewish history was very interesting, and quite mind-opening for someone like me who doesn’t know much of the early Jewish history in Europe.

Rabow seems to make sweeping assertions about the history without evidence – like that Anne Boleyn had multiple sexual relationships in France and remained friends with her ex-lovers. He says that the love letters are dated to 1527 and 1528 as if it’s a certainty. In the appendix the love letters he actually gives precise dates to, where we have no evidence. He adds a note in the references to say where he’s got the order from, but that should be stated more clearly within the appendix itself for any avoidance of doubt. It’s a huge problem to assert things as facts when they’re far from certain. This is my biggest problem with this book.

I was intrigued by this novel when I was offered a copy by the author for review. I’ve never heard of a novel told from the points of view of Thomas More, Desiderius Erasmus, and Margaret More Roper and it worked really well. The author has obviously done their research into the period and the figures at the centre of the story, and there is a long author note at the end which explains where things have deviated from the historical record and why.

The only thing that really got to me was the undertone of a romantic relationship between More and Erasmus, and again between Margaret and her maid, Dorothy. As far as I am aware, there is no evidence of any such relationships, and it didn’t add anything to the story by being there, it felt completely incongruous. These were the points where I struggled to get through sections, and I was engaged by the story when it focused on the religious divisions, struggles with what was and wasn’t heresy, and the changing political situations in Europe.

There is an extensive bibliography at the end of the novel, and the storytelling of the tumultuous events in Europe at this time is great. The different perspectives worked really well to understand events from someone at the centre of them in England (More), a woman who wanted to be able to do more than her position would allow her (Margaret), and a man who spread ideas which were sometimes deemed heretical but was hugely respected across Europe, removed from events in England (Erasmus). The three perspectives give insight into events outside England as well, providing a more rounded fictional narrative.

My memorial on Holocaust Memorial Day 2025, with reflections on family connections, how an interest in the Holocaust influenced by interest in history, and how we can learn from it.

My second book was 'Tudor Executions: From Nobility to the Block', but I couldn't include every single person that I wanted to in the book.

So who did I leave out?

Edmund de la Pole, 3rd Duke of Suffolk

Thomas Darcy, 1st Baron Darcy de Darcy

Henry Courtenay, 1st Marquess of Exeter

Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk

Thanks to Richard Woulfe and Chiselbury Publishing for a copy of this to review.

The idea of this book intrigued me when I was offered a copy. Robert Cecil isn’t someone I knew a huge amount about, largely just his involvement in the Essex Rebellion. I certainly had no real knowledge of how his life was under James I. I knew more about his father, William Cecil, Baron Burghley. So, this was a chance for me to get to know Robert Cecil a little better through a fictional lens.

We see the development of Robert over time, from the first chapter told from the point of view of his father while his mother gives birth, to the final chapter narrated by Robert himself as he’s dying, taking in his relationship with Francis Bacon, the Essex Rebellion, the death of Elizabeth I and accession of James I, the Gunpowder Plot, and the scandalous marriage of Arbella Stuart to William Seymour and their attempted flight. An overarching feature is Robert Cecil’s scoliosis, often referred to as a hunchback, little, or pygmy.

It is a good format to be told in 18 interlinked short stories, picking out some of the most important moments in Robert Cecil’s life, and of the late Tudor and early Stuart reigns. You see it from all kinds of different perspectives – Robert himself, his father, men and women on the street, a sculptor, a playwright, and an intelligencer. The writing is engaging in telling Cecil’s story, and Woulfe seems to have kept to the historical record as far as possible in terms of events that happened, though my knowledge of the period is far from encyclopaedic.

One thing I will say is that it would have been nice to have a year, and who the narrator is at the beginning of each chapter, so you know immediately how far ahead in the story we’ve jumped from the last chapter. Not having that stops the flow of the narrative I felt. It’s a bit hit and miss because some chapters do have a year and others don’t. The same with the different narrators, you have to sort of figure out who’s speaking as you go along which means you do really need to concentrate.

Dover Castle is a huge site, much bigger than I expected, and with centuries of history from a Roman lighthouse, to a Saxon church, to the medieval castle, to the 20th century bunkers.

This was a fascinating, and frustrating, post to research and write.

Frustrating in that history seems to be considered an unimportant subject in schools, and now universities are cutting humanities professors and departments.

I talked to Beverley Adams about her book on Elizabeth of York and the birth of the Tudor dynasty.

Was Henry VII and Elizabeth of York's marriage a love match?

Did Elizabeth of York believe her uncle Richard III killed her brothers, the Princes in the Tower?

A review of The Tudors series 1 from 2007. Covers the period c. 1518 to 1530.

I’ve wanted to read this book for a while, and I’ve seen mixed reviews. To be honest, I wasn’t sure if there was enough information on Henry Fitzroy to write a full biography as he seems to be relatively absent from the primary sources, probably hugely overshadowed by Anne Boleyn and the Great Matter. I owe thanks to Rebecca Batley for lending this to me for my research for my own book.

The chronology doesn’t quite make sense because Murphy starts with Henry VIII’s relationship with Fitzroy’s mother, Bessie Blount, through Fitzroy’s birth, life, and death. But then she seems to go backwards before moving on to his legacy and what could have happened had he survived past 1536. I think it was too much to write an entire book on Henry Fitzroy alone as there just isn’t enough information. I think what was done was done well, but there is a lot of background information on the Great Matter and a lot on what happened after Fitzroy died which had just a tenuous link to his story.

It is quite well-written and engaging, clear and easy to read, I mainly just have a problem with the chronology as previously outlined. It feels bulked out with more general Tudors information and context rather than focusing in on Fitzroy because of the lack of information about his life, but I did learn some things about him that I didn’t know.

This was a very personal and difficult post for me to write, but I thought that it needed saying.

It's sometimes said that autism is a superpower. That's not true. There are far more difficulties than bonuses in being born with autism and living as an autistic woman. But it is what makes me, me.

I plucked this off the shelf at the university library where I work; I thought it could be interesting and helpful to read for the book I’ve just finished writing. The focus is very much on Henry VIII as a man, statesman, and politician, and how England developed during his reign. There is less emphasis on those around him like his wives and advisers, though they’re included as influences on the king.

It's an interesting book because traditional biographies of Henry VIII there is still usually a lot of focus on those around the king, naturally because we are all influenced by those around us. However, the focus is very much on the king here. Wooding almost seems to make excuses for Henry where some of his actions were inexcusable, even at the time.

It is a challenge to theories of Henry VIII as a pawn of others, and I think that’s a very positive challenge. It’s always good to re-examine what others have said. I certainly don’t believe Henry VIII was a pawn of his advisers, wives, and nobility – he was a competent statesman, a confident man, and knew exactly what he wanted. I think it does Henry a disservice to place him as a pawn in his own history.

There are some errors, such as that Prince Arthur got married before he went to Ludlow, but he had already been at Ludlow, returned to London to marry, and then went back to Ludlow. And an assertion that Anne and George Boleyn were condemned partly on the evidence of Jane Boleyn, Lady Rochford, but there is no contemporary evidence of that, so it shouldn’t be asserted as fact in my opinion.