Alison Weir is the author of four other books on English history. She lives outside London with her husband and two children. She is currently working on a biography of Elizabeth I that will focus on the queen's private life and intrigues.
"Like anthropology, history and biography can demonstrate unfamiliar ways of feeling and being. Alison Weir's sympathetic collective biography, The Children of Henry VIII does just that, reminding us that human nature has changed -- and for the better....Weir imparts movement and coherence while re-creating the suspense her characters endured and the suffering they inflicted".-- The New York Times Book Review
"Like anthropology, history and biography can demonstrate unfamiliar ways of feeling and being. Alison Weir's sympathetic collective biography, The Children of Henry VIII does just that, reminding us that human nature has changed -- and for the better....Weir imparts movement and coherence while re-creating the suspense her characters endured and the suffering they inflicted".
-- The New York Times Book Review
Weir's latest biographical history begins where her Six Wives of Henry VIII (Grove Atlantic, 1992) ends, with Henry's death. Weir's new book covers the lives of Henry's children Mary Tudor and Edward VI, but it only takes Elizabeth up to her accession, and it also includes the entire short life of Jane Grey, the granddaughter of Henry's sister Mary. When Henry died in 1547, he left a country embroiled in several social problems brought about the enclosure of common lands, the high cost of his European wars, and the closure of monasteries. How his heirs dealt with these problems, along with their relationships, makes interesting reading, even though there's not a lot of new information here. What Weir provides is more detail, especially regarding Elizabeth's and Mary's interactions. We meet neither "good Queen Bess" nor "Bloody Mary" but rulers with strengths and weaknesses. Good reading for history fans.‘Katharine Galloway Garstka, Intergraph Corp., Huntsville, Ala.
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