Steve Donoghue’s posts from the original Open Letters Monthly Archives.
King Henry VII's victory at Bosworth transferred the crown of England to the new Tudor dynasty - but it also left many Plantagenets hanging around making Henry VII anxious. His son Henry VIII shared that anxiety, and his gradually-increasing persecution of the last remaining Plantagenets is the heart of Philippa Gregory's new novel.
Read MoreLady Jane Grey was famously Queen of England for less than a fortnight before being executed by Queen Mary I; Elizabeth Fremantle's new book takes us into the world of Lady Jane's two sisters, adrift in a royal court that can't afford to trust them.
Read MoreIdealistic young Mary Shelton finds love at the Tudor Court - but it's not the love her Queen has chosen for her
Read MoreKing Henry VIII's first wife, Catherine of Aragon, takes center stage in a new novel by Tudor historian Carolly Erickson
Read MorePretty young Audrey has grown up in the Tudor court thinking she's the daughter of King Henry VIII's tailor - but what if her real father is the king himself?
Read More"The Cousins' War" - Philippa Gregory's ongoing novelization of the Wars of the Roses - reaches an epic turning point in her latest book, about the precarious founding of the Tudor dynasty
Read MoreA young Swedish girl travels to England and becomes a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth I herself
Read MoreAn intelligent, sensitive Dominican novice finds herself at the heart of passionate conspiracies in the England of Henry VIII
Read MoreHistorian Alison Weir's latest novel features two young heroines, separated by 80 years but united by their fascination with one of history's mysteries: the fate of the Princes in the Tower
Read MoreYoung, vain, unfaithful Catherine Howard, Henry VIII's fifth wife, regularly draws writers intent on finding heroism in her brief life & times; Carolly Erickson is the latest aspirant.
Read MoreThe meek and dutiful Jane Seymour, mother of Henry VIII's long-sought male heir, takes center stage in a new historical novel about her life and times.
Read MoreTragedy haunted the earliest years of the new Tudor dynasty, and in this atmospheric new novel, a candle-maker and a courier are tasked with finding out why.
Read MoreThe daughter of Queen Elizabeth I's chief of espionage has a mind of her own, and in addition to being a dutiful wife to Sir Philip Sidney, she has the makings of an intrepid intelligencer.
Read MoreA heartfelt debut novel about an innocent young woman who comes to the court of Henry VIII - except she's Anne Boleyn's cousin, so innocence isn't going to last very long!
Read MoreA new novel tells the story of two women who played a very dangerous game for the biggest prize of all: the throne of England
Read MoreA new novel tries to infuse life and drama into the mousy, deferential person of Henry VIII's third wife, Jane Seymour
Read MoreBefore he wrote the novels that made him famous, Ford Madox Ford wrote Tudor fiction - and this great stuff is now offered to readers again.
Read MoreThe latest in the ongoing adventures of Shakespeare - JOHN Shakespeare, master-spy to Queen Elizabeth I.
Read MoreA novel about the woman who came heart-breakingly close to founding a new Tudor dynasty.
Read MoreThis is a place for all of my writing about books.