Anne Boleyn

Joanna Denny's biography of Anne Boleyn strips away centuries of misogynistic mythmaking to reveal a woman who was highly literate, politically savvy, and deeply committed to her faith. Rather than the caricature painted by Tudor propagandists — an adulteress temptress whose downfall was inevitable — this account reconstructs Anne as a formidable player in one of England's most dangerous courts. The narrative follows her from the perilous years at court before marriage through the tumultuous reign of Henry VIII, and culminates in the trial and execution that made her a permanent icon of English history.