The author even includes a Historical Essay in the book on reimagining Kett's Rebellion and long after I had reached the end of the book and was mourning the end of Shardlake (not literally, he lives on, as I do in the hope Sansom will write about him again), I was off into the internet reading all about Kett and the uprising. Henry VIII: The King and His Court by Alison Weir 4.3 (52) Paperback (Reprint) 20.00 Paperback 20.00 eBook 13.99 Audio MP3 on CD 14. And it is this revolt that not just forms the backdrop to the latest Shardlake murder investigation but throws the protagonist and his friends right into the heart of the action. Historian’s New Novel Raises Controversial Theory: Henry VIII Divorced Anne of Cleves Because She’d Already Given Birth Alison Weir acknowledges the claim, which pulls on previously.

The rebellion was led by a man named Robert Kett and although I had vaguely heard the name, I knew little about him or the reasons for the revolt.

As a general recommendation I could have picked any of the Shardlake novels but under the heading of books that made me want to know more, the reason I have selected Tombland specifically as one of my top 5 books is the author’s focus on the peasants’ revolt in Norfolk in 1549. The author has a real way of bringing the Tudor age to life and as a reader you are instantly transported into the 1500s with Sansom’s descriptive and quite brilliant writing. Never before has a detailed, personal biography of this charismatic monarch been set against the cultural, social, and political background of his glittering court. I have loved every one of the books in the series, following the adventures of the lawyer/crime solver Matthew Shardlake and his assistants Jack Barak and Nicholas Overton. Henry VIII, renowned for his command of power and celebrated for his intellect, presided over one of the most magnificent-and dangerous-courts in Renaissance Europe. At the time of writing, this is believed to be the last in the Shardlake novels and I, for one, am already missing them. Youve finished AlisonWeirBooks Six Tudor Queens series what next, you ask You need to read Henry VIII: The Heart and the Crown.

Henry VIII by Alison Weir