Reviews for The Creation of Anne Boleyn
Bookshelf Bombshells June 2014
Rebecca Henderson Palmer June 2014
Before It’s News (Audiobook) April 2014
Alex Goes Digital February 2014
Amy Licence, The Huffington Post UK January 2014
Elizabeth Norton Blog January 2014
The Absolute’s “The Best Stuff That Didn’t Suck” 2013 List
Open Letters Monthly’s Best of 2013 List
Royal Historian’s Top Ten Royal History Books of 2013
The Most Happy Review, October 29, 2013
Royal Central Review August 31, 2013
Historical Novel Society Review July, 2013
On The Tudor Trail’s Review June 30, 2013
Deanna Raybourn’s Review June 13, 2013
Liz Smith’s Review June 4, 2013
Leo Weekly Review May 22, 2013
The Anne Boleyn Files Review May 14, 2013
Boston Globe Review May 11, 2013
The Roanoke Times Review on May 3, 2013
Fashionista Piranha Review on April 27, 2013
Shelf Awareness Review on April 26, 2013
The Daily Beast Review on April 25, 2013
BookPage Review on April 25, 2013
I Prefer Reading Review on April 16, 2013
The New York Times Review on April 14, 2013
Lexington Herald Leader Review on April 14, 2013
Carolyn Harris: Royal Historian Review on April 13, 2013
Historical Fiction Notebook Review on April 13, 2013
Lit Nerd Around the World Review on April 8, 2013
Kyra Cornelius Kramer Review on April 6, 2013
Books by the Willow Tree Review on April 6, 2013
You’re History Review on March 25, 2013
Kyra Kramer’s Review on The Anne Boleyn Files
Confessions of a Ci-Devant by Gareth Russell February 25, 2013
My review of this book appeared in the Historical Novel Society Review (July 2013). I have since been completing my dissertation on Mantel’s novels and include a chapter on how Anne’s rise and fall are represented. I refer to Susan’s book in this chapter, but read Mantel’s representation as that of a woman whose persecutors use the myth of the witch that, in the sixteenth century, linked her with the devil and sexual voraciousness. Henry was only one persecutor who initiated this invocation of the witch; Cromwell simply uses many of the themes associated with witches to pursue his case against Anne. I argue that Anne is made into a tragic scapegoat because she dared to speak her political views in public, a topic Mary Beard discusses in the London Review of Books in a recent article regarding the silencing of women’s public voices. This differs slightly from Susan’s interpretation. Thoughts?