Henry VIII: King and Court (urspr publ 2001; utgåvan 2002)

Interesting but tough read - As said by others the confusion of names makes for some difficult reading. Great read though of the "good guys" versus the "bad guys" of this era ( )

There were some very interesting details about Henry's life and I have a new "visual" of him. However...there was a lot of "castle talk" (he bought this and that) and the noblemen's titles got confusing. If his name is John Smith, please, have pity on your readers and just refer to him as John Smith, even though he later becomes the Duke of This and/or the Earl of That. Or at least provide a list of important people with their various titles. ( )

This book has its weaknesses, the lack of a coherent thread to its account early on being one of them. But the level of detail and depth of research shown more than make up for that.

And the subject matter is, of course, endlessly fascinating – as Alison Weir herself writes in the very last paragraph: “[Henry’s] charisma still has the power to intrigue us.” ( )

This book is not only a biography of King Henry VIII, but it also takes a close look at the culture of the royal court in 16th century England.

I really liked this. Often, Weir's nonfiction books read like fiction and I would say this is one that did. I really enjoyed all the extra behind-the-scenes look at court life. This included detailed information on all the people at court, their positions, their pay, as well as the design of the palaces, food, fashion and probably more that is just not coming to mind as I write this review. I will say that it can be tricky to remember who's who sometimes; I've read enough of this time period that I'm mostly ok with it, but at the end of Henry's reign it got a bit trickier. What made it tricky for me is when someone's title is used rather than their name. I do mostly remember names, but sometimes remembering titles is a bit more difficult (especially, when those titles “move” from person to person sometimes!).

Overall, though, this is a really good biography of Henry that includes many behind-the-scenes details of court life and culture. ( )