Sunday, October 04, 2009

The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn by Robin Maxwell

The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn by Robin Maxwell
Historical Fiction


A short time in to Queen Elizabeth's reign, a stranger shows up at her door with a diary. The stranger claims to have been one of Queen Anne Boleyn's ladies in waiting during her last days as she waited in the Tower of London for her death. Elizabeth only knows what others have told her about her mother. This diary gives her a look in to her mother's most private thoughts from before her courtship with Henry, her engagement, marriage, and subsequent demise.

The book gives a great history lesson of both Anne and Elizabeth's early days. Having watched the TV show The Tudors, I already had a rough idea of the history and recognized most of the names that Anne wrote about. I think it would have been harder to pick up on who was who without this background.

The most enjoyable part of the book was how Elizabeth was affected by reading the diary. She didn't know much of her mother and seemed to learn a lot by her mother's past experiences and mistakes. Elizabeth draws on this to help her make an important decision that parallel's Anne's life.


First Line: "'God's death!' roared Elizabeth."


Rating:

(4/5)

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