Product Description

The scandalous true story of Mary Boleyn, infamous sister of Anne, and mistress of Henry VIII. Mary Boleyn, 'the infamous other Boleyn girl', began her court career as the mistress of the king of France. Francois I of France would later call her 'The Great Prostitute' and the slur stuck. The bete-noir of her family, Mary was married her off to a minor courtier but it was not long before she caught the eye of Henry VIII and a new affair began. Although a bright star at Henry's court, she was soon eclipsed by her highly spirited and more accomplished sister, Anne, who rapidly took her place in the king's heart. However, the ups and downs of the Boleyn sisters were far from over. Mary would emerge the sole survivor of a family torn apart by lust and ambition, and it is in Mary and her progeny that the Boleyn legacy rests.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #60731 in Books
• Published on: 2009-05-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 240 pages

About the Author
Jo Wilkinson received a First from the University of Newcastle where she also took her PhD. She is currently and scholar-in-residence at St Deiniol's Library, Britain's only residential library founded by the great Victorian statesman, William Gladstone. She is the author of a two volume biography of Richard III, the first volume of which Richard III, the Young King To Be has just been published by Amberley. She is currently writing volume two. She lives in York.

Customer Reviews

Another Triumph
Although I'm usually an admirer of Dr Wilkinson's work, I have actively avoided this book because - well, let's face it, the Boleyns are not the most inspiring constellation in the Tudor firmament. But, I'm glad I allowed myself to be bullied into reading it. This is a charming and delightful book. The writing style is, as always, elegant, literary and educated (although perhaps too much so for some). It has the accessibility of popular history, but also the command of the academic. Particularly good is Dr Wilkinson's trademark quellengeschichte, which she performs on each source with the skill I have come to expect - having said that, Dr Wilkinson wears her scholarship lightly so it doesn't get in the way of a good read.

This is not an in-depth biography but more of an introduction to Mary Boleyn whom I believe was the subject of Philippa Gregory's `The Other Boleyn Girl' (please correct me if I'm wrong). In spite of this Mary comes across as a fully developed (and fascinating!) figure in her own right, although she is sometimes sidelined in favour of Anne. This is inevitable since her life was so tightly influenced by her sister. Even Thomas Boleyn is treated without the usual prejudice of those writers who prefer to depict him as a one-dimensional villain of the piece whose sole interest is prostituting his daughters for his own personal gain. I must admit, I like the Boleyns much better now! I also like very much her treatment of Henry VIII, who is shown to be all too human at times.

The illustrations are good, appropriate, and captioned according to context. Another lovely touch is the use of Thomas Wyatt's poems at the introduction of every chapter. Each one is perfectly selected and applicable to the content and context of the chapter it opens.

It has been said elsewhere that reading this book is like watching The Tudors - I have to agree. It's rare to find such a vibrant writing style, especially from an academic. It shows how dry, dusty documents in the right hands can come to life in such a vivid way. Her depiction of the court in which Mary lived and was exiled from is colourful, exciting, and finely crafted. A masterpiece.

Mary Boleyn - more than a Queen's sister or a King's lover
After the phenomenal success of the "Other Boleyn Girl" it was to be expected that a proper biography of Mary Boleyn would be written. So I was quite excited when the book was announced and I ordered it straight away. I read it in two days and it did meet all my expectations.

Mary Boleyn, sister of Queen Anne and before that mistress of Francois I of France and Henry VIII, is in many ways the great survivor of the Boleyns. She did not end on the block as her sister and brother. So in many ways as she never seems to have been the centre of attention of either family or her lovers she was able to outride the storms which followed the great sunny spells. But she paved the way for her family. Jo Wilkinson paints a sympathetic picture of Mary but without forgetting the less appealing aspects. Mary seems to be ruled by her heart, rather by her brain or better to say by calculated emotions. She is more honest in this compared to her far more famous sister. But that does not mean she was stupid. However, she was properly not an intellectual. Jo Wilkinson of course looks into the question whether her two children were indeed the children of Henry VIII. She comes down that they were most likely Henry's children but offers no new reasons for it. But her discussion of the known facts is interesting and fascinating. Fascinating is as well her discussion of the legal - religious issues on the divorce. The book is quite weak on the relationships Mary had with her two husbands.

All in all, taken into account that there are not a lot of original material available on Mary Jo Wilkinson managed to restore Mary to her rightful place in the Boleyn family history and therefore in English history.

WONDERFULL READ
At last a book on Mary, this was a great read and a little more insight into Marys life instead of Anne, a very easy book to read, and i read a lot of books on history, a joy to find someone who writes really well, cannot wait for the next one, funny to think that Marys decendents are alive today, so if Henry had married Mary instead of Anne we might still have a Tudor on the thone, still we would not have had our wonderfull Elizabeth 1