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Shakespeare Songs by Deller Consort
Shakespeare Songs by Deller Consort
1967 | Vocal
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"Probably the most famous countertenor of the 20th century – unless you count Frankie Valli – was the wonderful Alfred Deller, a major figure in the revival of original performance techniques for early and Baroque music. When I was a child we had this album,so I grew up thinking everyone knew and loved 'Where The Bee Sucks' and 'We Be Soldiers Three'. The liner notes, at least on the CD version, are woefully inadequate (who wrote what? when? for which play? Did Henry VIII really write 'Greensleeves'?) but the music is lovely. "

Source
  
TC
The Children of Henry VIII
John Guy | 2013
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I was surprised to see that this book, covering a fair subject - the four known children of Henry VIII - had only about 200 pages of actual text. A rather different prospect to Guy's weighty biography of Mary Queen of Scots. As reams of paper and oceans of ink of already been expended on the Tudors, I'm not sure quite what the impetus behind this book was. It's not that it wasn't well written, because it was, but that I felt that it offered up almost nothing new. As an introduction to the subject to a reader new to the period I think I would recommend it, but to someone for whom this is already an area of interest, you've probably heard it all before.

The one new point that Guy does bring up, is the theory that Henry VIII belonged to a rare blood group, which resulted in problems with offspring surviving. We can see that no one woman appears to have more than one surviving child by him, but I would have liked a little more detail to support this - how did Henry come by his rare blood group? He was one of several siblings who survived infancy and his surviving sisters themselves had more than one surviving child.

A good brief guide to the subject, probably more suited to a reader fairly new to the subject. I felt disappointed as there was nothing new in here for me.
  
Tudor Dawn: Henry Tudor is ready to take the crown (The Tudor Series Book 1)
Tudor Dawn: Henry Tudor is ready to take the crown (The Tudor Series Book 1)
David Field | 2019 | Fiction & Poetry, History & Politics
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
A really interesting history!
I really liked this - I’ve not read much about Henry Tudor, and everyone is always much more interested in Henry VIII and his promiscuous love life! Henry Tudor isn’t like his son at all. He may well have enjoyed the company of women, but David Field doesn’t play on that fact. I learnt so much about the history of Henry’s upbringing and subsequent escape into exile - and it is a vey male dominated book. We don’t see much of what his mother would have been doing, but we do learn about her hard work on his behalf.
I hadn’t realised that he’d been such a sickly child and that some of these problems followed him in to adulthood, or that he actually seemed to love his queen (although that may well be fictionalised - but I’d like to know!). This first book in the series takes up to Henry VII’s death. I think I will be reading the next in the series.
What I really liked about this book was that it’s more history than fiction. It’s not dry, academic type history though, and that’s what really drew me in.
Many thanks to Sapere Books for my copy of this book to read and honestly review. I really enjoyed it.
  
Anna of Kleve: Queen of Secrets ( Six Tudor Queens book 4)
Anna of Kleve: Queen of Secrets ( Six Tudor Queens book 4)
Alison Weir | 2021 | Fiction & Poetry
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
213 of 250
Book
Anna of Kleve: Queen of Secrets ( Six Tudor Queens book 4)
By Alison Weir

Once read a review will be written via Smashbomb and link posted in comments

Newly widowed and the father of an infant son, Henry VIII realizes he must marry again to ensure the royal succession. Forty-six, overweight, and suffering from gout, Henry is soundly rejected by some of Europe's most eligible princesses. Anna of Kleve, from a small German duchy, is twenty-four, and has a secret she is desperate to keep hidden. Henry commissions her portrait from his court painter, who depicts her from the most flattering perspective. Entranced by the lovely image, Henry is bitterly surprised when Anna arrives in England and he sees her in the flesh. Some think her attractive, but Henry knows he can never love her.

What follows is the fascinating story of an awkward royal union that somehow had to be terminated. Even as Henry begins to warm to his new wife and share her bed, his attention is captivated by one of her maids-of-honor. Will he accuse Anna of adultery as he did Queen Anne Boleyn, and send her to the scaffold? Or will he divorce her and send her home in disgrace? Alison Weir takes a fresh and astonishing look at this remarkable royal marriage by describing it from the point of view of Queen Anna, a young woman with hopes and dreams of her own, alone and fearing for her life in a royal court that rejected her almost from the day she set foot on England’s shore.