En la Inglaterra de Enrique VIII crece la discordia. Para conseguir que se anule su matrimonio con Catalina de Aragón y casarse con la bella Ana Bolena, el rey ha roto con el papa de Roma y conmocionado a toda la cristiandad.
Nuevas leyes decretan que todo el que se atreva a oponerse a la voluntad del rey, o a sus nuevas creencias religiosas, será castigado severamente. Muchos serán ajusticiados por negarse a aceptar la nueva religión. Al principio, la pasión entre el rey y su joven esposa deslumbra a la corte. Pero conforme pasa el tiempo, y Ana Bolena sigue sin darle a Enrique un heredero varón, queda claro que ni siquiera ella está a salvo de la ira del rey.
Las tensiones aumentan en el reino y aquellos que contaban con el favor real ahora temen un final sombrío. Ana Bolena y el rey se debaten en un terrible juego de pasiones y cálculos políticos. En el tablero de ajedrez de la corte todo el mundo se esfuerza por adivinar cual será el próximo movimiento del impredecible y volcánico Enrique VIII.
Michael Hirst (born 21 September 1952) is an English screenwriter and producer, best known for his films Elizabeth (1998) and Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), as well as the Emmy Award-winning television series The Tudors and Vikings.
Hirst was born in Warsaw and grew up in Ilkley. He was educated at Bradford Grammar School and attended the London School of Economics. He received a First Class Joint-Honours Degree in English and American Literature from the University of Nottingham and studied Henry James at Trinity College, Oxford.
Hirst originally was going to be an academic, but decided to become a screenwriter after Nicolas Roeg read one of his short stories and asked Hirst to write screenplays for him.
Hirst was head writer, creator and executive producer of the Showtime television Drama Series The Tudors which aired from 2007 to 2010. It tells the story of King Henry VIII and his Six Wives as well as his court and the dilemmas throughout his kingdom during his reign.
Hirst is one of the co-writers on the screenplay for the James Dalessandro book, 1906. The story follows a young man who discovers a series of secrets and lies that left San Francisco highly vulnerable to the fires that engulfed it in the aftermath of the historical 1906 earthquake, released in 2012.
In 2011, he co-produced the series Camelot with Chris Chibnall for Starz. Hirst then produced The Borgias television series for Showtime, telling the story of the notorious Borgia family. The filming began in the summer of 2010 and the series ran for three seasons. In 2013 Hirst created Vikings which was The History Channel's first foray into serialised drama.
Based on the second and, in my opinion, best season of the Tudors, this is a somewhat different retelling of the true story of King Henry VIII and his second wife and Queen, the ever ambitious Anne Boleyn. It is surprisingly even better than the Other Boleyn Girl, at least in my opinion. Not to mention, this King Henry is actually sexy. Yes, he is still a tyrant in this, but yum. This isn't the King Henry VIII we learned about through actual historical accounts.
While Anne Boleyn may not have been among the most likeable of King Henry's six wives, she is still one of the most interesting. In spite of Queen Anne being no saint, I still couldn't help but be just a little sad over what inevitably happened to her at the end. (this series really made me disgusted with Sir Thomas Boleyn) I also felt a little depressed over that scene where the three-year-old Elizabeth was no longer to be titled Princess and was soon to be motherless, and the Lady Bryan said that her father didn't even want her anywhere in his sight for a long time. But in the end, Elizabeth would triumph as the Virgin Queen. Overall I enjoyed this series from the beginning to the end.
I loved the book, not as much as the first one, but it was definitelly great!! :) The story is very interesting, all the changes, all the surprises. It is very well written story of Henry VIII and his second wife Anne Boleyn.
Really enjoyed this book. I have read a few novels about this era and they do blow hot and cold but this is one of the better ones. I know it is based on a tv series (not seen) but the quality of the writing and economy of language make it very readable. I will look for other novels by her, I will also look for Part 1 of The Tudors as this was Part2. Thanks Elizabeth Massie. You have a new fan
better than the first book! again a pretty straight forward screen-to-paper adaptation, but this book made for a better read than the first one. faster paced, more exciting, a little bit scarier and brutal too. anne boleyn on paper didn’t quite cut it compared to dormers on screen version (but i guess that was to be expected). actually pretty excited to read the third book now too!
Review - I didn't think the characters came across as well on paper as they did on the screen. Anne Boleyn, in particular, was dry on paper, but so much more vivid on screen. This was a letdown for me. I was expecting so much more of this book than a mere transcription almost of the television series. I was hoping for better description. However, if I didn't know the TV series so well, no doubt it would have been more interesting, but for anyone who's watched the TV series I wouldn't recommend it.
Genre? - Historical Fiction / Drama / Romance
Characters? - Henry VIII / Anne Boleyn / Thomas Cromwell / Thomas Boleyn / George Boleyn / Jane Boleyn / Jane Seymour / Charles Brandon / Thomas Cranmer / Thomas Wyatt / Mark Smeaton / Eustace Chapuys / Katherine of Aragon
I enjoyed this one a little more than the novelization of season one, I think. The descriptions of Henry left me meh, but I like what they did with Anne.