Jane Boleyn survives the executions of her husband George and sister-in-law Anne, but her reputation remains bound to the evidence used against them. Returning to court, she serves Catherine Howard and becomes involved in the young queen’s secret meetings with Thomas Culpeper. The story examines Jane’s motives, loneliness and fatal decisions without reducing her to the conventional image of a malicious informer.
Jane’s service at court gives her access but little security. Her survival after the Boleyn catastrophe depends on remaining useful within the same political culture that destroyed her family, and Catherine Howard’s household recreates many of the pressures Jane has already witnessed. The novel asks whether her later actions arise from calculation, sympathy, fear or a mixture of all three.
Philippa Gregory
32 books
Elizabeth Fremantle
7 books
C. W. Gortner
8 books
Margaret George
6 books
David Field
46 books