Well I finally got back to and finished this book.   If you’re into Henry VIII like I am, you should definitely read it.

As I said earlier, the writing style is a bit shotgun in its approach. It’s basically a few hundred pages of anecdotes and assumptions/insights into Henry VII as an old man and Henry VIII as a young one in their respective courts and its a great study in the motives and manipulations that made European empires back in those days as well.

Since this book ends quite abruptly at the introduction of Thomas Wolsey, I suggest that you have ready a book about Henry’s adult years.  Perhaps beginning with the end of his first marriage so that you don’t find yourself lying there in bed thinking “damn that ended abruptly”.

This is the kind of writing which I love and there’s a small abundance of it here.

COURTNEY TAYLOR-TAYLOR

If you like stories about horrible things happening to good people…well then you have problems.  Or an amazing sense of humor.  I certainly will not be continuing this book but I have flipped thru to see if she lightens up.

Nope.

This book is a Kafka-esque excercise in injustice, a subject I already know plenty about and hopefully will never have to learn much more.

COURTNEY TAYLOR-TAYLOR