Where to start with Alison Weir?

[Cornishblues]

In the mood for some history. Looking for readable but without any heaving bosoms. I have a rusty A level in Tudor history so find that period more readable than others, but even so I’m hoping for something not too weighty. Enjoyed Hilary Mantel’s 2 Tudor volumes. Wondered if Alison weir might fit the bill but not sure where to start? Other suggestions welcome - either factual or fictionalised.

[booksandwool]

I loved the (non fiction) Antonia Fraser six wives of Henry VIII which was just as readable as a novel. Tbh otherwise Philippa Gregory, Alison Weir, Anne O'Brien, to my mind they're all much of a muchness when it comes to made up detail and bosoms. And none stacks up against our Hilary!

[BookWitch]

I'm enjoying Alison Weir's Six Tudor Queens series, the one about Anne if Cleves just came out. Fictionalised but well written

[Essexgirlupnorth]

Innocent traitor is one of my favourite Alison weir books about Lady Jane Grey

[MrsFiddymont]

Lady in the tower

[CapybarasLoveCake]

Bit old fashioned now, but I loved the Jean Plaidy historical books.

[HopeClearwater]

CJ Sansom’s Matthew Shardlake series?

[Cornishblues]

Thank you @booksandwool, that looks like a good call.

[HagridsBigToe]

I personally like her books "the Lady Elizabeth" and "Innocent Traitor" best. Not too heavy. I struggled a little through some of her others.

[Cornishblues]

Lots of good suggestions, thank you!

[TheCanterburyWhales]

Sharon Penman is your woman imo. I also gobbled up Jean Plaidy when a teenager but having grabbed Castile for Isabella on a 99p offer, was shocked and disappointed how simplistic and reductive it seems.

I read my first Sharon Penman (When Christ and his saints slept) earlier this year. It was great, you didn't feel you were reading something set a thousand years ago, and I felt the characters were real. And obviously I learned a lot too.

[Cornishblues]

Thank you she sounds really interesting. Funnily enough i did look in the library for one of hers that someone on here had recommended but it was such a whopper of a hardback that I didn’t take it out! Will treat myself to a paperback perhaps.

[opheliasknickers]

just read the alison weir anna of cleeves 6 tudor wives. enjoyed it (even though some of it was made up....and she does admit to those bits!). bought yesterday and finished this afternoon.

[choirmumoftwo]

Would recommend a fairly recent biography of Katherine Howard which looks at her tragic life from a new angle. I can't remember the author but it's called Young, Damned and Fair.

[Cornishblues]

Thanks for these, great ideas. Ive had a soft spot for Katherine Howard since I had my head chopped off as her in a school play - that biog looks a gem!

[Apollinare]

'Katherine Swynford '. I read Katherine by Anya Seton about 10 million times when I was a teenager and was ecstatic when Alison Weir published her biography.
I read an interview with Weir just before the book was published , she was asked about her next subject and was expecting nobody to have heard of Katherine Sywnford; every woman over a certain age in the audience had all read the Seton novel! I know, rambling.
I still have a massive crush on John of Gaunt

[Cornishblues]

Just to report back that @choirmumoftwo ‘s recommendation of Young and Damned and Fair hit the spot nicely. It’s interesting both about Catherine Howard and also for taking you right into the atmosphere of tyranny and really what an act of plunder the reformation was. Makes me realise how much my ancient A level was taught from the perspective of the powerful.

Thanks for the other suggestions too, will revisit this next time the mood for history strikes.

[choirmumoftwo]

So glad you enjoyed it. Makes you realise what a horrendous life it must have been for young women (children really). With today's context it was child sexual abuse.

[Deathraystare]

I suppose if you like them you'd maybe like Philippa Gregory (can't stand it myself but one of our book club always seems to want one of her's!!!

[donotcovertheradiator]

Hilary Mantel said she was inspired by, 'The Man on a Donkey' by H.F.M. Prescott.

It is a hefty book but a marvellous one.

[slipperyeel]

@TheCanterburyWhales - I love Penman too, don’t understand why she isn’t better known

[Barbarafromblackpool]

Sharon Penman is excellent. Sunne in splendour especially.

[longwayoff]

An Instance of the Fingerpost, Iain Pears. The CJ Sansom Shardlakes are a pleasure.

[CrisisMummy]

@17Apollinare me, too!

[beguilingeyes]

Another vote for Sharon Penman. Here Welsh trilogy starting with Here Be Dragons are my favourite books ever.