Blue Wolf Reviews

Tag: Tudor

  • The House of Echoes

    The House of Echoes

    Anne Brandon, Baroness Grey of Powis, was a woman who was included in the Court circles, witnessed much of the tragedy of times and was a friend or close acquaintance of the women King Henry made his Queens, only to later dispose of them when another enticed him.

    The House of Echoes from Alexandra Walsh is set between the modern day and the Tudor Court of 1509 to 1547 as Anne Brandon grows from a young woman, married into a terrible marriage, later to live openly with the love of her life Randall Hanworth, until the death of her husband Edward Grey, Baron of Powis.

    Caroline Harvey is the public face of world famous, reclusive author Dexter Blake, the creator of the Ether Hercules series. She is returning to England at the completion of the filming of the eight book in the series, saddened as her grandfather would no longer be with her, but ready to launch the ninth and final book in the series.

    Returning to her home, Dexter’s Place in Pembrokeshire she is sorely missing her grandfather, but when she discovers there is to be a new bookstore opening at the Milford Marina complex she is delighted. It is part of a chain Ten to Midnight, which is owned by Gideon Morris a man she fell in love with as a young woman on the brink of adulthood.

    Both women have in the course of their life been left bereft, both women have had to face and overcome hatred, both women have loved deeply and irrevocably. Woven though the dual narrative is the timeless, medieval story of Tristan and Iseult (Isolde) which tells the tale of illicit love and tragedy which still, centuries later, resonates.

    Alexandra Walsh has carefully researched the historic content and uses the house Anne Brandon and Randall Hanworth called home as the modern, Dexter’s Place which ties the two stories together and in doing so, tells the story of so many of the women, influential and otherwise, whose stories call down through history, still untold.

    The House of Echoes is an excellent read with an informative section at the end of the book on the story of Anne Brandon and the history of the Tudor Court of King Henry VIII, which for those not familiar with this tumultuous time in history, will be very helpful.

  • Henry VIII: The Heart and the Crown

    Henry VIII: The Heart and the Crown

    Henry VIII, who wasn’t born to be King, is probably the most written about monarch in British history. Is there any more that can be said about him? Award winning authority on Tudor History, bestselling author Alison Weir, certainly thinks so!

    In her second book in the Tudor Rose series, ‘Henry VIII: The Heart & The Crown’, she skillfully blends historical facts with authentic and atmospheric descriptions to provide readers with a fictionalised but enthralling tale of the innermost thoughts and feelings of this infamous king.  

    Upon the death of his brother, Arthur in 1502, the woefully ill prepared Henry became heir to the throne. After the peaceful but austere reign of his miserly father Henry VII, a promising Golden Age was heralded with Coronation of the new King in 1509.  Celebrated for his intellectual and physical prowess, and with an overflowing treasury, Henry (Harry), who had dreamed of knights and chivalry, set about to make his mark on the world. Although his power and influence extended, his prayers for a male heir remain unanswered.

    Alison Weir, by writing this detailed, enthralling tome from Henry’s perspective, has given readers a comprehensive insight into why this autocratic, vain but initially popular, chivalrous, romantic king, over four decades evolved as one of the most brutal, murderous, tyrannical sovereigns in British history: he changed England and the established Church forever. With her vivid descriptions she paints a fascinating picture of Tudor life, court, dress, customs, pageantry and events which actually took place, thereby transporting her readers back to the early sixteenth century. 

    I highly recommend this balanced portrait of a well-known complexed character.

  • The Anne Boleyn Cypher

    The Anne Boleyn Cypher

    Time travel into Tudor England is not a new concept but The Anne Boleyn Cypher offers a different viewpoint into the life of Anne Boleyn, a young woman who became the second wife of Henry VIII, Queen of England between 1553 to 1536, gave birth to the child who would become Queen Elizabeth I, and was tried and later beheaded on trumped up charges on 19 May 1536.

    Elizabeth (Beth) Wickers is a second year student studying for her BA in Early British History. Amongst her friends there is much chatter about time travel, Cardinal Wolseley and holiday gossip. At the end of her first lecture she is offered a box of books by Professor Marshall. All she needs to do is collect them from his office.

    Looking through the box she finds a ring with the initials AB on it; putting it on she is about to leave the room when she notices a book The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn by Eric Ives. She decides she would like to borrow that but it will not move off the shelf. The wall does move though and she finds herself in a long, musty corridor which eventually leads her to a bedroom, which to her modern day mind reminds her of a film set or stage play. Except it is not. It is the real thing: Anne Boleyn’s bedroom and it is around the year 1526.

    And so begins a time travel into Historic Fiction that makes interesting reading as Elizabeth (Beth) Vickers realises that she is caught in History and has to be very careful what she tells Anne, as Anne is still an impressionable young woman with her future in front of her. Some of the fiction is a little implausible, but then that is the art of poetic license; the facts are correct.

    Slow moving in parts, the work could be tighter to help hold the narrative together, but overall the storyline is attractive. The final chapter is intriguing as it leaves the door wide open for further time travel intrigue from the Courts of Tudor England or later, as the case may be.

    The Anne Boleyn Cypher is book one in the Timeless Falcon Series.