8 Tudor Books for Fans of The Tudors and Wolf Hall (Exclusive)

‘Jane Boleyn: The Infamous Lady Rochford’ by Julia Fox

One of the essential sources for my new novel was Julia Fox’s brilliant biography of Jane Boleyn. Fox reclaims the notorious lady-in-waiting from centuries of scandal, revealing a sharp-witted, politically savvy woman caught in the tyrannical court of Henry VIII. 

It’s a compelling and fresh view of Jane that transforms her from a historical villain into one of the most fascinating women of the Tudor period. If you love straight history, you will love this highly accessible biography.    

‘Wolf Hall’ by Hilary Mantel

When I first read this fantastic book, I sent a fan letter to Hilary Mantel via her agent. Wolf Hall is the first — and my favorite — of the masterly trilogy which follows the rise of Thomas Crowell, advisor to Henry VIII. Cromwell’s advice to Henry and his perspective is such an interesting part of the Tudor story and it makes for an extraordinary novel.

I went on to work with the late Dame Hilary on a number of occasions and each time we talked unstoppably about our approach to history and to fiction, the overlaps of the two disciplines. Her contribution to the literary world was outstanding.  

‘Perkin: A Story of Deception’ by Ann Wroe

This is a history written in the style of fiction. It concerns a deception — a mysterious young man known as Perkin Warbeck, who returns to England claiming to be Richard of York, one of the princes who disappeared from the Tower. He is dismissed as an impostor, but is his story true? Is Wroe’s enthralling retelling of the charismatic Perkin true? You can judge for yourself. 

‘History Play’ by Rodney Bolt

This is a wonderfully imaginative, tender account of William Shakespeare and his world. A “what-if” biography that imagines Christopher Marlowe faking his own death in 1593, escaping England and going on to write the works we now attribute to William Shakespeare.

I fell in love with this book, which is mostly fictional because some of it is fantasy, some of it is entrancing speculation and some a wonderful evocation of the time and locations of Shakespeare’s writing. Bolt seduces the reader into the palm of his hand, and you believe everything he says.

‘The Private Life of an Elizabethan Lady: The Diary of Lady Margaret Hoby’

Lady Margaret Hoby was a landowner and heiress who, during the early 1600s, was running her estate and the family business in Yorkshire in the frequent absence of her husband on parish and judicial business. She kept a journal, one of the earliest women’s records. It is a chronicle of relentless spiritual exercises, ill health and work. It’s a fascinating early, authentic voice from a woman living in a time when women’s personal experiences were rarely documented, showing us women’s competence in managing family wealth. 

‘The Six Wives of Henry VIII’ by Alison Weir

There are many very fine historians working on the Tudors.  Eric Ives, David Starkey, David Loades, GR Elton, Amy Licence, Suzannah Lipscombe, Gareth Russell, Eamon Duffy who have led an explosion of Tudor scholarship and much of it is genuinely new research and thinking. A great place to start is Alison Weir’s Six Wives, which encompasses all the detail which such a pace that you can read it almost like a novel. 

‘The Story of Tudor Art: A History of Tudor England Through its Art and Objects’ by Christina J. Faraday

The beautiful book is a treasury of art, objects, jewellery and clothes that tells the history of Tudors through the things that they loved, commissioned, lost and destroyed and sometimes cherished. The richness of the book is not just in the wealth of illustrations, but in the reading of them — whether it is the “come hither” smile of Henry VII or the newly discovered reverse of a hidden panel. Whether you love art or the Tudors or both, this book should be a welcome addition.  

‘The Country and the City’ by Raymond William

Put simply, I love this book. It covers more than just the Tudors — it describes the literature of the English countryside, showing us how writers have portrayed the countryside and the city across through history and the long tradition of the pastoral and the relationship of people to the land. Deeply moving, it is a love song from a great writer and historian to the people and the land that he loved and understood.