Catherine Carey has been dreaming the same dream for three years, since the bloody execution of her aunt Queen Anne Boleyn. Her only comfort is that she and her family are safe in Calais, away from the intrigues of Henry VIII's court. But now Catherine has been chosen to serve Henry VIII's new wife, Queen Anne of Cleves. Just before she sets off for England, she learns the family secret: the true identity of her father, a man she considers a monster. One she will shortly meet. This compelling novel tells the life story of a woman who survived being close to the crown and became one of Queen Elizabeth I's closest confidants.

This illuminating history examines the life and many legends of the 16th century Queen who was executed by her husband, King Henry VIII. Part biography, part cultural history, The Creation of Anne Boleyn is a fascinating reconstruction of Anne’s life and a revealing look at her afterlife in the popular imagination. Why is her story so compelling? Why has she inspired such extreme reactions? Was she the flaxen-haired martyr of Romantic paintings or the raven-haired seductress of twenty-first-century portrayals? (Answer: neither.) But the most provocative question of all concerns Anne’s death: How could Henry order the execution of a once beloved wife? Drawing on scholarship and critical analysis, Bordo probes the complexities of one of history’s most infamous relationships. She then demonstrates how generations of polemicists, biographers, novelists, and filmmakers have imagined and re-imagined Anne: whore, martyr, cautionary tale, proto “mean girl,” feminist icon, and everything in between. In The Creation of Anne Boleyn, Bordo steps off the well-trodden paths of Tudoriana to tease out the human being behind the competing mythologies, paintings, and on-screen portrayals.

Jane Parker never dreamed her marriage into the Boleyn family would raise her star to such dizzying heights. Before long, she finds herself as trusted servant and confidante to her sister-in-law, Anne Boleyn-King Henry VIII's second queen. On a gorgeous spring day, that golden era is cut short by the swing of a sword. Jane is unmoored by the tragic death of her husband, George, and the loss sets her on a reckless path leading to her own imprisonment in the Tower of London. Surrounded by the remnants of her former life, Jane must come to terms with her actions. In the Tower, she will face up to who she really is and how everything went so wrong.

Anne of Cleves left her homeland in 1539 to marry the king of England. She was never brought up to be a queen yet out of many possible choices, she was the bride Henry VIII chose as his fourth wife. Yet from their first meeting the king decided he liked her not and sought an immediate divorce. After just six months their marriage was annulled, leaving Anne one of the wealthiest women in England. This is the story of Anne's marriage to Henry, how the daughter of Cleves survived him and her life afterwards.

She gives the general reader fresh access to Elizabeth's mind and ideas, her wit, verve, eloquence, circumlocution, and formidable learning. OBSERVER A new approach to historical biography - she has studied both the original sources and recent works of scholarship and has a thorough understanding of the period. SUNDAY TIMES Until Maria Perry began her exploration of Elizabeth's papers, this vivid raw material had only been partially studied. From it, a fresh portrait of Elizabeth emerges, one which is often more cohesive and less baffling than some offered by her biographers. The dangers and insecurities of her early life, her sense of divine protection, her formidable education, all stand out as crucial elements in the formation of her character; but behind the acquired circumspection lies a personality of great warmth and spirit. On the teasing questions of love, marriage and virginity, the letters and speeches offer oblique comment; it seems certain that Robert Dudley was her one true love, and that she felt his second marriage to Lettice Knollys as a bitter betrayal. MARIA PERRY is a graduate of Somerville College, Oxford, where she read history.