The SECRET DIARY OF ANNE BOLEYN

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Summary: An excellent account of Tudor England
Review: Robin Maxwell's book is the best fictional account of the reign of Anne Boleyn. The story, as told through the secret diary of Anne Boleyn, provides great insight to the politics and religious turmoil of the day. This reader wonders how the Protestant Reformation would have been lessened without the influence of Anne Boleyn. Further, the scandal of the period explains the arrogance surrounding royalty that exists to this day. At least the Tudors had political and religious reasons for their scandals. What are the excuses of the Windsors

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Summary: A fascinating account of Tudor England
Review: Anyone wanting an education regarding Tidor England should read Robin Maxwell's book. The story she has to tell about Henry VIII and Anne Boyleyn gives great insight to Protestant Reformation. This reader now wonders if it had not been for Anne Boyleyn's influence over Henry, would the reformation have had as much impact on England and Europe. At least the controversy associated to the Tudors had a political and religious impact. This reader wonders what the Windsor's excuse is

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Summary: a must read - fascinating in every way
Review: What was most fascinating about "The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn" was the mother/daughter connection. Over the years I've read a lot about the Tudors, but no one has ever given that all-important relationship more than a cursory mention. Robin Maxwell has shown us in her wonderful book that parental influences in children's lives were just as important five hundred years ago as they are today. This is a family book to be shared with mothers and daughters, as well as sons and fathers

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Summary: A Conversation with Robin Maxwell
Review: When I started writing about my personal obsession, Tudor England, I had no idea how many people were utterly fascinated by the subject -- Henry VIII and his wives, his daughters Elizabeth I (the so called "Virgin Queen") and "Bloody Mary", state sanctioned beheadings and heretic burnings, great wars, plagues and world-changing love affairs. The Tudors may not have been the first, but they were certainly one of the most violently dysfunctional royal families in history. And Anne Boleyn married into it. Most everybody knows HENRY - he's best remembered for having six wives, and disposing of several of them in rather a severe fashion. Many people have heard of ANNE BOLEYN, and of course she's best remembered for being one of Henry's unlucky wives - his second, in fact. There's an old Kingston Trio song that goes: With her head tucked underneath her arm She walked she bloody tower With her head tucked underneath her arm In the midnight hour... Somehow, Anne Boleyn managed to end up on everybody's "most hated" list. A couple of years ago I was in England and metioned I was writing a book about her to several men and every one of them had the same response - "Oh that bitch, that whore that stole Henry away from his first wife." It was shocking. And today, in Spain, the term for a really reviled, horrible woman is an "Anna Bolina". So, everybody knows a little something about Anne and Henry, and most people have heard of the fabulous Renaissance queen, Elizabeth I (the so called "virgin queen"), but relatively few people know that Elizabeth was, in fact, the only offspring of the marriage of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. And that Elizabeth's being born a girl and not the promised son that Henry so desperately wanted, was perhaps the biggest reason that Anne Boleyn lost her head. I'd been studying Tudor history, in particular, the story of Anne and Henry, for 25 years. Several questions kept niggling at me. And these questions became the basis of my book, "The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn". FIRST - what gave Anne the confidence to literally stake her life on a promise that she would give Henry a son. She was no dummy. And she was a gambler, so she had to have known logically that the odds weren't much better than 50/50 for having a male child. In fact, in those days women died in childbed all the time, so something must have given her that extra touch of audacity. What was it? SECOND - Was Anne Boleyn really the ambitious, conniving "goggle-eyed whore" that history has made her out to be, or was she actually a heroine - a 16th century feminist who single-handedly provoked the Protestant Reformation? THIRDLY - Was Elizabeth, the "Virgin Queen" actually a virgin? And what, in an age when women might have been queens, but never ruled, what gave Elizabeth the idea that she should stay unmarried and never give her power away to any man? I write using what I call "the holes in history" approach to historical fiction. You study and research till the cows come home, you know what treaty was signed when, what war was fought, what nobleman was granted what title, even who wore what color gown to which masque, but you'll always find big blank spaces - there's simply no way of knowing exactly what one person said to another in a castle chamber 500 years ago. I always searched greedily in my history books for these "holes", because that's where I can use what I do know - something about a character, or something that's happened up to a certain point, and what happened on the other side of the hole. Then I speculate and extrapolate - and come up with a scene that very well might have happened or been said. My favorite example of this is a character called Niniane, Anne's personal fool. Fools, or jesters were extremely important in court life. They were the social and political commentators of the times. They were kept very close to royalty and were allowed, even encouraged to say virtually anything about anything as long as it was couched in satire and made people laugh. This, you must remember, was at a time when the highest of nobility had to seriously watch their P's and Q's - never ever say or do anything to anger or offend the King. Or else. So I found one sentence in one of all the history books I read, that while she was Queen, Anne had a woman fool. One sentence. But that piqued my curiosity something fierce. I wondered - a woman fool. What a thing to be. Who was this woman? What was her background, born to noble or peasant family? Where did she go to "fool school"? How on earth did she end up in the very tiny charmed royal circle at that incredible time in history?. She must have been an extraordinary person in her own right. Very bright and ambitious (the Roseanne Barr of her day). She must have been close to Anne and must have had some very strong feelings about the fate of her mistress. So I took the one spare thought - a woman fool - fleshed her out and embellished her - made Niniane into a moderately important character. One day I may one day write a whole book about her and her life. People ask me how a nice Jewish girl from New Jersey managed to put herself in the velvet shoes of a 16th century English Queen. Anne Boleyn had been a private obsession for more than twenty years. And when I had the chance to go to Edenbridge, a tiny village in England where Anne grew up and live in a Tudor Manor house once given to Anne by Henry VIII, I jumped at it. Except for modern plumbing and heating the place hasn't been changed much since the 16th century. Sleeping in Anne's bedroom, in an ancient carven four poster bed, walking through the garden mazes I found it easy to travel back in time Maxwell and penetrate Anne's mind and as well as her world. The more I learned the more fascinated I became. There was never before nor has there been since, a dynasty as great as the Tudors'. And to my thinking there are no two women whose lives and impact on history are as great as Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth I

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Summary: This is the best book I have read in YEARS!!!
Review: An exquisitely written historical novel. I could not put it down and read it through in one night This book would make an extraordinary feature film

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Summary: Absolutely BORING!
Review: For someone who researched the Tudor dynasty as tirelessly as Robin Maxwell purports, she completely failed to pick up on the importance of character development and scene juxtaposition. I felt absolutely nothing for Anne's scheming and ministrations; neither did I find her antics unutterably selfish or unmitigatingly powerful. She was as unexciting as a bowl of cottage cheese. Still less did I buy the emotional seesawing of Henry VIII. Granted, true history speaks well for the man's fickle nature, but I cannot believe that he, the King of England and head of his own Church, would've placed all of his ample wits and faith into the promises of a son as given by a mere slip of a girl whose pedigree he had to doctor in order for her to be accepted as his worthy bride. Let us give credit to him as the great sovereign his people rightly believed he was. He may have been lustful and duplicitous, but he was never as stupid as Maxwell portrays him. As far as the changing scenes between Elizabeth and the reading of her mother's diary, Elizabeth herself is nothing but a flitting shadow, sneaking off to read the writings in private (she's the Queen; no matter what Maxwell asserts, she did not need to conceal her actions). This novel leaves me cold, bored and desirous for a giant high school textbook on Tudor England. Want real historical fiction with honorable and sentient central figures who live as vividly in the pages as they did in real life? Try Sharon Kay Penman. She beats the historical pants off Robin Maxwell any day.

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Summary: History With Intrigue and Passion!
Review: I enjoyed the film, "Elizabeth", so I thought I would buy this book, in hard cover.

I love history, and this author brings to it both solid research and a fascinating story.

Great story line, and I wish someone would make this into a film. His proposition is supported by some historical references, and so it is fun to wonder if a lot of this plot were not true!

Fast and Fun, with good historical information. Phil

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Summary: Amateurish
Review: Leaving aside the problems many have cited with historical accuracy, Robin Maxwell's writing itself is cloying, mannered, and embarrassing. Were Elizabeth I and Anne Boleyn merely characters, the story would still be weak, thanks to its delivery via throbbingly purple prose.

Maxwell is not confident with the language she's chosen to use. It manages to be uncomfortably antique-sounding to untrained modern ears, yet it is anachronistic to the period it is supposed to reflect. It satisfies neither as a modern retelling, nor as period-faithful. Ms. Maxwell seems to be aware of this - and the result is that she does not have the confidence to pull off her idiom confidently.

As to historical accuracy: for those who care enough to know better than books like this are able to portray, no setting-straight of the record is necessary. For those who don't, it would be beside the point.

Stay away from this author only because her writing is weak; not because her research methods are inferior to your historical knowledge.

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Summary: A Very Enjoyable Read
Review: I read this book in two days. I do not know how accurate it is historically, but I did enjoy it so much I couldn't put it down. The underlying thread about how women are subservient to the whims of men rings so true.

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Summary: Wish I'd read the reviews first.
Review: I found this to be a great book.
It starts off with a chapter of Elizabeth, her daughter, Queen Elizabeth I of England and the Virgin Queen. Then we alternate between Elizabeth and diary entries of her mother.
I absolutely love reading about Elizabeth. Everything she had to go through was so interesting, and she handled it all so well. I find her fascinating. Unfortunately I have not found as many historical fiction books about her after she became Queen. I do not know as much about her during this time and I would love to know more.
I had read Doomed Queen Anne by Carolyn Meyer and thought that this also would be a good book. It was, but not the best. I found myself growing bored and wishing we could get back to Elizabeth. With Anne, it covers about 11 years, from when she first met Henry to her death. A lot of those years is waiting around for Henry to get his divorce. Not a lot happens in the middle years, between meeting him and refusing to become his mistress, and the divorce. The Elizabeth "parts" were much more interesting.
I did find it intriguing how Carolyn Meyer made Anne an ambitious girl trying to come out from under her sister's shadow, but Robin Maxwell showed her as a girl who was swept up by Henry VIII (He made the first move!) and eventually warmed up to the idea and did want to become the next Queen of England.
All in all, a good book, yet you find yourself wanting to skip the Anne diary entries. Plus, hostile feelings just come more and more to Anne, with almost no friends to turn to except her brother who was beheaded a day before she was, a former fiance who forgot about her after they had pledged their love to each other but the king made them never see each other again, and Henry himself turns against her after Elizabeth is born. You feel sorry for Anne but it was her fate. That was one reason I did not like the book as well as I could, as I like happier or more exciting times.
I do recommend that you read it!