Synopses & Reviews
In this "energetic"
(Kirkus Reviews) re-creation of Anne Boleyn's tragic life -- and death -- Robin Maxwell offers a pitch-perfect version of a bawdy and exuberant time filled with lust, betrayal, love, and murder.
When the young Queen Elizabeth I is entrusted with Anne Boleyn's secret diary, she discovers a great deal about the much-maligned mother she never knew. And on learning the truth about her lascivious and despotic father, Henry VIII, she vows never to relinquish control to any man. But this avowal doesn't prevent Elizabeth from pursuing a torrid love affair with her horsemaster, Robin Dudley -- described with near-shocking candor -- as too are Anne's graphic trysts with a very persistent and lustful Henry. Blending a historian's attention to accuracy with a novelist's artful rendering, Maxwell weaves compelling descriptions of court life and devastating portraits of actual people into her naughty, page-turning tale. The result is a masterpiece of historical fiction -- so prophetic of our time that one would think it were ripped from today's headlines.
Review
Rose-Marie Donovan Delray Times A novel with depth, character and a compelling plot.
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Entertainment Weekly History doesn't come more fascinating -- or lurid -- than the wife-felling reign of Henry VIII.
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“A wonderfully juicy historical novel so convincing that it’s difficult to believe it is the author’s first…Maxwell brings all of bloody Tudor England vividly to life.”--Publishers Weekly, starred review
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Rose-Marie Donovan
Delray Times
A novel with depth, character and a compelling plot.
Review
Saria Kraft Malibu Times Maxwell knows her stuff....In her treatment of Tudor's greatest tragedy, Robin Maxwell has gone where no man has gone before.
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"In this dramatic retelling of Anne Boleyn's life, Maxwell creates an historical fiction classic. But beware: this is truly addictive reading.”—Michelle Moran, author of Madame Tussaud
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"Dazzling. Historical fiction at its finest."
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“Dazzling. Historical fiction at its finest." - C.W. Gortner, author of The Confessions of Catherine de Medici
Synopsis
Entertainment Weekly wrote, "History doesn't come any more fascinating -- or lurid -- than the wife-felling reign of Henry VIII". Robin Maxwell re-creates this chapter in history to perfection in an exuberant and bawdy novel of lust, betrayal, love and murder.
When the young Queen Elizabeth I is given her mother's diary, she discovers the truth about her lascivious and despotic father, Henry VIII -- and vows never to relinquish control to any man.
"This is a wonderfully juicy historical novel, so convincing that it's difficult to believe it is the author's first...Painting vicious court intrigue, national and international politics, and the role of the Reformation, Maxwell brings not only the two queens but all of bloody Tudor England to life". -- Publishers Weekly, starred review
"An energetic, full-dress period novel... should appeal to all fanciers of imagined portraits of Tudor-era heroines". -- Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
Robon Maxwell, a devout student of Tudor England, devoted twelve years to the research and writing of The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn. She lives in Topanga, California, where she is currently at work on a sequel.