I was genuinely surprised by how nuanced and compelling Alison Weir’s Henry was. The second book in Alison Weir’s Tudor Rose series is just as detailed and well written the first (which follows Henry’s mother Elizabeth of York.) And once again expertly blends historical fact with a deft, fictionalised rendering of the innermost thoughts, feelings (loves and grievances) of the infamous King Henry VIII.

And he left an extraordinary legacy-a modern Britain. To his contemporaries, he was a great king, a legend in his own lifetime. Had fate been kinder to him, the history of England would have been very different. A passionate man in search of true love, he was stymied by the imperative to produce a male heir, as much a victim of circumstance as his unhappy wives. The King’s Pleasure brings to life the idealistic monarch who expanded Parliament, founded the Royal Navy, modernized medical training, composed music and poetry, and patronized the arts. His reign is remembered as one of dangerous intrigue and bloodshed-and yet the truth is far more complex. He died a suspicious, obese, disease-riddled tyrant, old before his time. He beheaded two of his wives and cast aside two others. Henry famously broke with the Pope, founding the Church of England and launching a religious revolution that divided his kingdom. He had all the qualities to make a triumph of his rule, yet we remember only the violence. Young Henry began his rule as a magnificent and chivalrous Renaissance prince who embodied every virtue. Having completed her Six Tudor Queens series of novels on the wives of Henry VIII, extensively researched and written from each queen’s point of view, Alison Weir now gives Henry himself a voice, telling the story of his remarkable thirty-six-year reign and his six marriages. The New York Times bestselling author of the Six Tudor Queens series explores the private side of the legendary king Henry VIII and his dramatic and violent reign in this extraordinary historical novel.

Henry VIII by Alison Weir