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Smile UK Store - The Boleyn Inheritance
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List Price: £7.99
Our Price: £4.53
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
Manufacturer: Harper
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
EAN: 9780007190331
ISBN: 0007190336
Label: Harper
Manufacturer: Harper
Publication Date: 2007-05-01
Publisher: Harper
Studio: Harper
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Editorial Reviews:
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Praise for 'The Constant Princess': 'One of Gregory's great strengths as a novelist is her ability to take familiar historical figures and flesh them into living breathing human beings. "The Constant Princess" is a worthy successor to her previous novels about the Tudors and deserves to be a bestseller.' Daily Express 'Gregory's research is impeccable which makes her imaginative fiction all the more convincing.' Daily Mail 'Gregory is great at conjuring a Tudor film-set of gorgeous gowns and golden-plattered dining.' Telegraph 'The contemporary mistress of historical crime. Her novels are filled with strong, determined women who take their fate into their own hands!Gregory brings to life the sights, smells and textures of 16th-century England.' Kate Mosse, Financial Times 'The Constant Princess': 'If romantic historical novels are your cup of tea, The Constant Princess will not disappoint. Gregory vividly reconstructs life in the Spanish royal household, and contributes to the sense of Katherine's foreignness.' The Times 'Sweeping historical romance!..her tale almost reads like fiction rather than real history, at least in Gregory's very capable hands.' The Mirror 'Philippa Gregory is bang on form again as mistress of the Tudor chronicle, bringing to life all the intrigue of the era with great finesse.' Daily Express 'Full of gorgeous scenery, emotional moments and passionate sex' Sunday Telegraph 'The Virgin's Lover': 'A book to lose yourself in...a simmering mixture of intrigue, lust and betrayal at the court of Elizabeth I, it breathes new life into the suspected love affair between the young queen and Robert Dudley.' Daily Mail 'Convincing and entertaining'. Daily Telegraph 'Historical fiction at its best.' Choice 'An enjoyable read, and Gregory's energetic writing carries one along.' Sunday Telegraph 'A fascinating new take on a story we thought we knew.' Eve 'Highly readable, highly enjoyable.' Manchester City Life 'History has a sexy makeover in an erotic account of Elizabeth l's relationship with the married and tantalisingly unavailable Robert Dudley.' Glamour, Books of the Year 'Gripping and often moving.' Image 'Packed with court intrigue and sumptuous detail.' Dublin Evening Herald 'Gregory's success lies in restoring humanity to her historical figures.' Daily Mail 'Gregory vivdly portrays court life - all the political intrigue, divided loyalties, love and betrayal.' Woman and Home 'Gregory is one of the best chroniclers of the ups and downs of the turbulent Tudors...This superbly plotted drama unfolds like an exquisitely embroidered Tudor ruff.' Sainsbury's Magazine 'Queen of the historical novel.' Mail on Sunday 'Gregory creates an intriguing tale with many an unexpected twist.' Glasgow Herald 'The Other Boleyn Girl': 'It is a credit to Gregory that she is able to sustain interest in an epic-length tale when the ending is one of the most well-known moments in English history. The very believable dialogue and detail take you all the way into the claustrophobic privy chambers of the royal palaces!Gregory has launched herself into a popular period and produced something with that most underrated of virtues: readability.' The Times 'This is an intelligent variation on a familiar tale [with] witty use of metaphor.' Time Literary Supplement 'This compulsively readable novel is a wonderful account of the tudor court!This is the finest historical novel of this year.' Daily Mail 'The Queen's Fool': With her excellent eye for detail, [Gregory] moves The Queen's Fool along at a great pace.' Marie Claire Australia 'Totally absorbing!this is a triumphant piece of storytelling, not least because Gregory manages to make familiar events fresh and unloved people fascinating.' Gay Times 'Gregory offers a subtle examination of the tension between profound personal faith and the dangers of imposing that faith on others.' Jewish Quarterly 'It combines history and invention in gripping and memorable style.' Red 'Gregory weaves a brilliant and complex fictional web around historical fact. Hugely enjoyable.' Sainsbury's Magazine 'Historical fiction at its most masterly. Meticulously researched and realised and with an engaging and totally convincing heroine, "The Queen's Fool" invites readers to rethink their opinions of both 'Bloody' Mary and the 'Virgin' Queen. Superbly plotted, exquisitely written with the enviable capacity to simultaneously thrill and provoke thought, this novel is even more 'unputdownable' than "The Other Boleyn Girl."' Historical Novels Review 'Gregory serves up some more deliciously sombre moments from a factious Tudor court.' Independent 'Gregory's dramatic, plot-driven novel is thoroughly readable.' Sunday Herald
The author of The Other Boleyn Girl (2002) returns to the executed queen's doomed family in a historical novel that maps the sad demise of Henry VIII in a series of intimate personal testimonies.Gregory's tale of greed and revenge takes place against the short, unhappy tenures of Henry's fourth and fifth wives. Jockeying for position close to the throne, three powerful, ambitious women collide. The author skillfully allows each character to tell her side of the story in her own words. The first voice we hear belongs to 30-year-old Jane Boleyn, widowed sister-in-law to Anne. Jane's husband George was implicated in his sister's alleged infidelities and went with her to the scaffold in 1533; his calculating wife moved to save her inheritance rather than her husband and six years later is still scheming. Next up is Anne of Cleves, soon to be Queen Number Four, a provincial, German-speaking Protestant princess chosen by Henry's advisor, Thomas Cromwell, as a politically suitable alliance to keep Spain and France at bay. Badgered and bullied all her life by her brother and mother, 24-year-old Anne wants nothing more than to escape Cleves and have a meaningful life. The third voice belongs to Katherine Howard, a pretty, 15-year-old cousin of the dead Anne Boleyn and an incorrigible flirt who is brought to court as a lady-in-waiting by her conniving, powerful uncle, the Duke of Norfolk. Also summoned to court to attend the new queen, Jane begins plotting behind the scenes with Norfolk to assure Anne of Cleve's hasty fall and Katherine's quick ascent in Henry's favor. Gregory's knowledge of the period, combined with her novelistic skill, allows her to view this grim tale through the eyes of the three women: wily, experienced Jane; naive, sensible Anne; and vain, greedy young Kitty. Their first-person accounts are convincing and shockingly self-serving.Royal history spoon-fed in a highly digestible form. (Kirkus Reviews)
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: ......divorced, beheaded......
Comment: This is the story of 3 women, 3 very different women and 1 very odd man.
Katherine is just fourteen when she lands a job that thrusts her into the spotlight of Henry, the man whose riches and homes she wants to share but at the moment this is only a dream, in the wilful childlike head of hers, a head which does not understand the consequences of any of her actions.
Anne is new, she has been contracted into an arranged marriage to Henry, has only seen a portrait of him and him of her. However their first surprised meeting is not successful as she inadvertently pushes away the stranger who approaches her as a vagrant or ruffian; it is in fact Henry come to surprise his new bride.
Jane is the third and final women in this story. She is hanging on to her life after giving evidence that sent her husband and his sister to their deaths. Can she save herself this time or will her plotting and spying helps another person to their death?
Henry is a very odd man. After three seemingly unsuccessful marriages, he seeks an arranged fourth, but she physically rejects him most publicly on a surprise visit to see her. He blames her for his own impotency and the fact she has been promised to another, years previous, he seeks a divorce. He can then pursue Katherine, the young pretty and silly girl who flatters him and hopes her virility will bring him a son.
This could be any story, any place and any time but this is the story of Jane Boleyn (wife of George Boleyn and sister in law to Anne Boleyn) Anne of Cleves, Katherine Howard and Henry VIII. Phillipa Gregory uses her research to weave together a fictional book about two of the lesser wives, that are normally discussed when you mention Henry VIII and his infamous marriages.
PG effectively puts across that Anne of Cleves is a Queen who is out of place and struggles to come to terms with everything that is new to her in a new country and also all in a new language. Katherine is portrayed as an empty headed girl that judges the success of her life on how many dresses she owns, jewels she can see sparkle and men that she lustfully pursues. At no point does she grow up and her death by execution sees the first insight that she is/was a girl in a very adult world. Jane Boleyn, Lady Rochford is the catalyst in all of this and she uses her knowledge of her past misdemeanours to try and help both new Queens, but in the end does not see the plot against her.
PG portrays Henry VIII so effectively in my opinion that at times, I could smell the rotting mad king's leg and see that he was going rotten all over to be able to change his mind at will to get the result he wanted. You could be favour one day, but with your head on a stake the very next. The portrayal of an old man, whose health and desire for food and women actually were his downfall. A boy that never grew up and never should have been King, spent the rest of his life throwing his metaphorical dummy out when everything did not go to plan.
PG paints a wonderful, colourful rich picture of Tudor court that you can see the colour clothes, the sparkle of the jewels and the chatter of all the men and women who inhabit it. This is what drew me to read another one of these `Tudor' court novels. The structure of the book, switching between the three women telling their story of events is cleverly done and I found helped you look for sympathies or faults with each character and made it easy for the reader to understand them better and their motives. A worthy read.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Rashomon for the Tudor Set
Comment: This novel is written from the viewpoint of three very different women - the naive yet quick-witted Anne of Cleves, the calculating Jane Boleyn and the greedy and childish Catherine Howard. They take turns by each chapter telling their view of events as they occur over a fairly brief period of time. Anne is set aside by the King in favor of Catherine, and it's the best thing that could have happened to her. She's the only one of the King's wives to survive a parting in a fairly benign (compared to the others) way.
Catherine ignores her revulsion in order to be the new Queen, all so that she can get pretty new dresses and jewels. She is completely and idiotically heedless of the dangers that await her in this vicious court and, even more stupidly, seeks comfort in the arms of a man within her new husband's household.
Finally, Jane Boleyn, the woman who pretends to be the friend of all the queens and really is only a friend to herself. She is only the marionette of the duke, the uncle of both Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, but she has plenty of evil all on her own, and was, based on her behaviour, quite possibly insane. I knew nothing of what happened with these three ladies so every page brought a new surprise, and the writing is so evocative of the period and illustrates emotion in such a compelling fashion that I was loath to set the book down until I had finished it.
Philippa Gregory's books gets knocked for being historically inaccurate, and that's a fair complaint. However, they provide an excellent introduction to the period and, once interested, a reader can continue into non-fiction discussions of the times about which she writes by seeking out the volumes listed at the end of each novel. I know that I will be doing exactly that.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Another EXCELLENT Read
Comment: This is the second novel I've read by Philippa Gregory's; it's also the sequel to 'The Other Boleyn Girl' which I've recently read and reviewed.
The book is based around Anne of Cleves, Katherine Howard and Jane Boleyn. It's follows how their leave change when each become part of the court of Henry VIII.
Poor Anne of Cleves, leave her country to marry a king old enough to be her father, she is not how royalty should be, so she becomes another victim of Henry VIII, but he allows her to live but in exile, he replaces her with the cousin of his previous wife, Anne Boleyn).
Katherine Howard, a child and not ready to be queen due to her childish ways flirts her way to the throne only to wish she hadn't as the king is too old and sick, and he doesn't pay her the attention a husband should. Her roving eye falls onto Thomas Culpepper, but this story of two lovers can only end one way.
Jane Boleyn is constantly haunted by the death of a previous queen and her husband. She like the rest of the Boleyn girls do as they are told by family members, and is constantly just trying to survive suspicion, betrayal and death that surrounds the kings court.
The structure of this book is different to 'The Other Boleyn Girl', that book continually follows on with the story where as the sequel is split up into chapters where it deals with each of the ladies in turn. To me it made the book a little slow to get into at first, but once you'd got used to the structure it was just as enjoyable as the first.
The novel is a compelling and I will definitely read it again. This is another of Philippa Gregory's master pieces and I look forward to reading the others I have recently bought. :-)
Another novel worth every penny, whether you are male or female if you love history you'll love this. :-)
Customer Rating:
Summary: Just brilliant!
Comment: This is my third PG novel having read TOBG and TCP then this one. I have to say I loved how it was written from three completely different view points. Although it is fiction based with real historical facts it was good to finally read something more of Katherine Howard as I find I know very little about her of all the wives.
I feel it gives more of an insight into Jane Boelyn and although I do not agree with the way in which she helped with the downfall of Anne and George and then Katherine, I certianly feel I get an understanding of why she acted out the way she did.
Again I am not to convinced on all the facts surrounding Anne of Cleves and that she was the ugly wife but I she was definitely one of the luckier wives in that he let her live albeit in fear until his death.
Katherine Howard or Kitty as I like to think of her, I felt for and sympathised with. I know in Tudor times you grew up more quickly but I do think she was uneducated and not as mature for her age as other woman of that time were. As a result of this novel, I am now very intrigued in finding out more historical facts on Kitty.
Overall, this book is a brilliant read and would suggest you read TOBG first and then follow on with this novel. If you are a fan of the Tudor period then the I would highly recommend PG's Tudor range as I have read most of them now and have not been disappointed at all.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not as good as the others
Comment: I believe that everyone is entitled to their opinion, and I often enjoy books that do not seem to be very popular (before anyone is up in arms about my review!). Unfortunately I have to say that I am not part of the majority of the readers here. I do not think this novel is as good as The Other Boleyn Girl or The Queen's Fool. Whilst it is generally known that Kathryn Howard was not the most educated of people and was of course very young, Gregory makes her sound like a 5 year old. I appreciate it is a matter of interpretation, however, young women of the Tudor Age were generally a lot more mature, having been treated as adults at a very early age. Overall it is a passable read but very simply written - please return to the more 'adult' writing of The Other Boleyn Girl.
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