The second book in Alison Weir's 'Tudor Rose' series, this also ties in with her 'Six Tudor Queens' novels. The women have had their say, but now it's time for the big man himself to tell his side of the story... and perhaps he might not be as monstrous as you think. 

First and foremost, this is a great effort in humanising Henry and seeing the man behind the magnificence. It's so easy to portray him as a monster, but in this the author starts to peel away the layers and imagine what his thought processes, motivations and fears may have been to cause things to go the way they did. It isn't always completely successful; for example, I'd say that his flip-flopping over whether to have Katharine Parr arrested is very quickly dealt with and glossed over, but even there there is some attempt at giving meaning to his actions. In historical terms, we're of course never going to know what went on in his head and I don't think it's remotely plausible to justify ordering the deaths of two wives, whether or not actual hard evidence of infidelity existed (although I of course acknowledge different time, different mindset), but I think fiction is a great medium in which to explore these possibilities. And, in the main, very few do it better than Weir.

That being said, she does make what, in my view, is the classic mistake in both fiction and non-fiction books concerning this period. In the 'Six Tudor Queens' series, all of the wives get books that are roughly the same length so you really get to dive into their lives and characters. In this, as per usual Katherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn suck up all the air, leaving you to canter through the later wives at lightening speed. Indeed, it always seems to me that Katharine Parr gets the rough end of the deal being number six, as she is so often overlooked. I do appreciate that Katherine of Aragon's 20+ year marriage is of course going to take up more time than the six months suffered by Anne of Cleves, but nevertheless I was hoping for a little more balance, especially because of the author's amazing prior works on the Queens.

I found the pace a little too quick throughout; there's very little pause for breath, you're just on a trajectory from one important historical event to another. However, it flows very well and was incredibly easy to read and follow. Except for the phrase 'you have the sow by the right ear'... I lost count of how many times that appeared, but by the end I was getting incredibly frustrated with the repetition.

The best way I can describe it is that it felt like reading a revision guide to the Tudor period - nothing important is missing, and yet it's not the same as reading a fully-fledged textbook. I had high hopes for this, but I've read better.