Henry VIII was born 28 June 1491, and it seems as though people have been talking about him ever since. Very few people in the Western world haven’t at least heard of Henry VIII. Odds are good that at some time they have seen the famous portrait of the bloated, middle-aged King, with his arms… Read more Happy Birthday Henry!
I recently bought Clare Cherry and Claire Ridgway’s new book, George Boleyn: Tudor Poet, Courtier & Diplomat, and I was very glad I did. The blurb for the book promises a lot of information: “George Boleyn has gone down in history as being the brother of the ill-fated Queen Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry… Read more Review of George Boleyn: Tudor Poet, Courtier & Diplomat
May 19, 1536 was the day Anne Boleyn was murdered by her husband, and it is generally considered a tragedy. The next day, Jane Seymour became engaged to the killer, and I think that should be generally considered a travesty. In my book, Blood Will Tell, I make no secret of the fact I find… Read more Third Weddings and a Funeral
Odds are good that anyone reading this has heard of Beyoncé’s sister Solange physically attacking Beyoncé’s husband, Jay-Z, in an elevator a few days ago. It has been parodied on Saturday Night Live and the mainstream media has reported on it. NPR justly pointed out that “This happened — literally — behind closed doors. If… Read more Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, and Mary Boleyn Carey were in an elevator …
There is a new documentary in town called Fed Up and it attacks “the conventional wisdom of why we gain weight and how to lose it, Fed Up unearths a dirty secret of the American food industry-far more of us get sick from what we eat than anyone has previously realized.” Moreover, it stars that… Read more How Sweet It’s Not
You may have heard that there is a new heir to the English throne. Or maybe not. They have been kind of burying the story in the back pages of the media haven’t they? So, just in case you haven’t seen it or heard it anywhere else, let me share the fact that at 4:24… Read more A Star Is Born!
Doctors and scientists are, like everyone on earth, a product of their culture and upbringing. There is no such thing as “objectivity”. It is a fantasy constructed by the delusion that facts are immutable. Well, absolute facts do exist, but the interpretation of them is always skewed because they are only viewed through the prism… Read more Kell and McLeod can happen together, actually.
Lacey Baldwin Smith (LBS) is one of the “big name” historians, and for good reasons. His research is meticulous and his analysis is often profound. His book on Henry VIII is one of the most cited and significant works on that King. Thus, when he wrote a book about Anne Boleyn I scurried over to… Read more Lacey Baldwin Smith’s book about Anne Boleyn
There’s never a billionaire with a love of Tudor history will to give an author $10 million dollars around when you need him/her. Also, I am having trouble locating 10 million people willing to send me one dollar each. Or even the more modest 5 million people willing to send me two bucks. This makes… Read more I Need a Sponsor
I confess. I have not read either of Hillary Mantel’s Booker Prize-winning novels, Wolf Hall or Bringing Up the Bodies. Mea Culpa. I’ve heard that they are excellent (and I am sure that they are), but I freely admit that I am afraid I will not enjoy them because I am not crazy for the… Read more I am not fond of Thomas Cromwell