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Friday, August 05, 2011

Question from Em - Books on Jane Seymour

Are there any good books on Jane Seymour? I would prefer fiction, but any suggestions would be appreciated.

5 comments:

  1. The only novel about her I've really liked is Frances Clark's. It's entitled--drumroll, please!--"Jane Seymour."

    I haven't read Dinah Lampitt's Pour the Dark Wine, but other people I know have liked it.

    There's also Laurien Gardner's Plain Jane, Carolly Erickson's The Favored Queen, and Julia Watson's The Tudor Rose.

    Elizabeth Norton has written a biography of Jane.

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  2. Frances Clark's book about Jane is beautifully written and is also my favourite. (It was originally called, "Mistress Seymour" but the title was changed when it was re-published as part of the "Six Wives of Henry VIII" series.

    Julia Watson (writing as Julia Hamilton, was the author of both "Katherine of Aragon" and "Anne of Cleves" in this series. In her version of Jane's story, Jane is a wily and determined girl, with a plan to supplant Anne Boleyn...

    "Pour the Dark Wine" is more of an epic about the Seymour family and is an enjoyable read.

    There is also "Jane, Beloved Queen" by Jean Evans and "The Flower of Old England" by Philippa Dobson and "The King's Wife" by Ursula Bloom which are old and quite difficult to get hold of.

    For non-fiction there is "Jane, the Quene" by Pamela Gross which has its inaccuracies but has some interesting discussions eg how Jane's goody-goody image still prevails today!

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  3. Tudor Princess, I went looking for the Jean Evans book after seeing your response, and saw that one seller was asking about $200, and another over $1,000 for a copy! Eeek!

    Dixie Atkins has also written a series of novels about Henry VIII's queens, A Golden Sorrow. One volume is devoted to Anne of Cleves and Jane Seymour. It's more two novels in one volume than an integrated whole, though.

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  4. Kelly Hart is coming out with a book on Jane Seymour next year. She did a conscientious job with a lurid topic in her previous book, The Mistresses of Henry VIII, producing something that was both enjoyable to read and accurate in its analysis, so I am looking forward to this new effort on Jane.

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  5. Thank you so much for all of these titles. I am working on writing a book on Jane and looking for as many sources and interpretations as possible. Please let me know if anyone else has found as other useful books.

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