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In Bed with Anne Boleyn
Thomas Cromwell, the king’s Principal Secretary, Mark Smeaton, court songster and musician, and Henry VIII are all caught up in Anne Boleyn’s catastrophic fall from power and grisly death. Anne is the supreme opposite of the king’s first wife, Katherine, who dutifully washed her husband’s shirts, never complained about his lovers, and rarely expressed an opinion but concealed behind a mantle of piousness the pride of a Spaniard.
In contrast, Anne Boleyn possesses only two attributes that help her secure a crown – extraordinary perseverance and almost indecent ambition. Her other qualities – her nagging determination to have her own way, her cruelty and her dangerous lack of decorum – all spell disaster that no amount of sex appeal can avoid. The very steps she takes to save herself from her inability to supply the king with a male heir seal her fate. This is historical fiction wedded to historical reality at its best.
In contrast, Anne Boleyn possesses only two attributes that help her secure a crown – extraordinary perseverance and almost indecent ambition. Her other qualities – her nagging determination to have her own way, her cruelty and her dangerous lack of decorum – all spell disaster that no amount of sex appeal can avoid. The very steps she takes to save herself from her inability to supply the king with a male heir seal her fate. This is historical fiction wedded to historical reality at its best.
256 pages, Paperback
First published July 19, 2014
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105 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
February 22, 2015
I think this is one of the first books that I've reviewed that i'd actually recommend people not to read. This book was a historical fiction so i thought compared to a non fiction book it would be quite easy going whilst including the basics of the period....i was wrong in parts it went from easy language to quite difficult passages of explaining things to the point where i was bored and couldn't quite understand what was been said. it was a hard slog through this book. i felt that some characters went wildly against what i thought they should be or actually lacked characterisation so i wasn't that shocked when things happened. However some bits or rther the lighter elements of the book flowed well and i did enjoy them. Favourite part would have to be Lady Jane Parker, Anne Boleyn's sister-in-law, who was into the occult in this book and it gave her character a real fresh twist and a more sinister side rather than the whole I'm bored because my husbands not interested in me so i'll cause trouble....you know from the outset she doesn't like him and you get the impression her plans are somewhat bigger than the boleyn family. As always I would read another book by this author to see if i just got a bad book but i sadly don't have high hopes!
August 26, 2015
No. Just... no.
May 10, 2018
The most laughable "work of fiction from history" I have read on this time period. Riddled with long winded and uninteresting "facts" that made me feel like I was watching a play with the characters regurgitating family trees and figures. The author clearly didn't do her research before diving into a rich piece of history- one sided and unexplained. What a shame, I bought this book at Hever Castle and was hoping it would be a fond momento!
January 9, 2026
Lacey Baldwin Smith is an engaging and highly enjoyable writer of non-fiction. But this little romp, published after his death, has all the feel of a spare-time project that never made it past the (very) rough draft stage. I doubt he ever thought it would be published. The dialogue consists of near-verbatim transcription of well-known letters or witness descriptions interspersed with highly informal and often anachronistic bits of irreverence. I can only think that Smith planned to smooth it all out to make the written 16th- century words sound more like spoken dialogue and the modern adolescent-boy-humor sound more like 16th-century talk. This theory is backed up by the utter lack of proofreading. Punctuation is incorrect or missing. In one instance a character actually responds to himself with a heated refutation mid-conversation. Bewildering non-sequiters occur. Trains of thought are violently derailed, and the wreckage simply abandoned. At one especially regrettable point, Anne is referred to as "the midnight COW."
Would it have been a great work if it had been finished? Probably not. It reads more like a little luxury granted himself by a serious scholar and meant to be shared, if at all, only with a selected few.
I suspect the author's heirs dug this out from beneath the unmated socks in his bottom drawer and published it in hopes of making a few more dollars off of the old fellow.
Still, it was worth the read. At least no one but Henry fell madly in love with Anne, and Smith mercifully spares us any attempts to humanize her by including uncharacteristically naive and gushing internal monologues about the details of her ambitions and grudges, or stretches our credulity with burning feelings for Henry. If only some other popular writers of Tudor fiction could be convinced to follow his lead!
Would it have been a great work if it had been finished? Probably not. It reads more like a little luxury granted himself by a serious scholar and meant to be shared, if at all, only with a selected few.
I suspect the author's heirs dug this out from beneath the unmated socks in his bottom drawer and published it in hopes of making a few more dollars off of the old fellow.
Still, it was worth the read. At least no one but Henry fell madly in love with Anne, and Smith mercifully spares us any attempts to humanize her by including uncharacteristically naive and gushing internal monologues about the details of her ambitions and grudges, or stretches our credulity with burning feelings for Henry. If only some other popular writers of Tudor fiction could be convinced to follow his lead!
February 5, 2024
Sigh. I know that I have made it my personal mission to collect every single book possible about Anne Boleyn and the other wives of Henry VIII, but my god I think I regret even reading this one. I don’t understand what in the heck went wrong with this book. Its baffling to me of all the bad that seeps out of this book.
First, for the title of the book having her name, there is very little Anne in the book itself. She is minor character. The characters are one dimensional, and shoved into tiny little boxes of their personality and had no room to grow or change. Anne is a sex crazed woman, who doesn’t care much about anything else. Henry is a fat horrible man throwing tantrums all the time. Sure you could write a story and re-write history but not like this. Actually, give some thought to the story and plot and grow the characters. The author is a historian for goodness’ sake!…..sigh. I just. Please do not read this book, its not good.
First, for the title of the book having her name, there is very little Anne in the book itself. She is minor character. The characters are one dimensional, and shoved into tiny little boxes of their personality and had no room to grow or change. Anne is a sex crazed woman, who doesn’t care much about anything else. Henry is a fat horrible man throwing tantrums all the time. Sure you could write a story and re-write history but not like this. Actually, give some thought to the story and plot and grow the characters. The author is a historian for goodness’ sake!…..sigh. I just. Please do not read this book, its not good.
January 13, 2018
It disturbs and upsets me that books like this are getting published. Historically inaccurate, terribly written and with a tendancy to waver between a very male focus on breasts and unnecessary six page discussions of medieval symbolism. I cannot recommend avoiding this book enough.
March 19, 2020
Gave up.. worst Anne bolyn book ive ever read ..end of story
July 16, 2021
Full of historical inaccuracies and language that could not possibly have been used at the time (ie. sperm, between a rock and a hard place) and misspellings or just the wrong word used.
July 24, 2015
Truly awful. I really hope this was ghost written, or at least the 'fiction' parts were.
It was supposed to be a historical novel looking at another possible interpretation of the whole Anne Boleyn fiasco. What actually happened was half the book being dry, boring, not even relevant historical details (e.g. lists of exact costs of items) presented as jarringly out of place thoughts by the main characters, then the other half consisting of the most godawful sex scenes I've ever read.
Speaking of the sex scenes, it was ok and possible meant to be sexy(?) in this book that a woman was so attractive men couldn't be resist raping her. Also, the entire book was written through the eyes of the male characters only, with Anne Boleyn and every other woman mentioned (except Katherine of Aragon and Princess Mary) portrayed as evil seductive whores. Those poor helpless men... Bonus: Jane Parker was an actual witch.
Poorly proofread as well, there were typos galore, and people and place names were often wrong.
In short, just don't bother.
It was supposed to be a historical novel looking at another possible interpretation of the whole Anne Boleyn fiasco. What actually happened was half the book being dry, boring, not even relevant historical details (e.g. lists of exact costs of items) presented as jarringly out of place thoughts by the main characters, then the other half consisting of the most godawful sex scenes I've ever read.
Speaking of the sex scenes, it was ok and possible meant to be sexy(?) in this book that a woman was so attractive men couldn't be resist raping her. Also, the entire book was written through the eyes of the male characters only, with Anne Boleyn and every other woman mentioned (except Katherine of Aragon and Princess Mary) portrayed as evil seductive whores. Those poor helpless men... Bonus: Jane Parker was an actual witch.
Poorly proofread as well, there were typos galore, and people and place names were often wrong.
In short, just don't bother.
April 26, 2016
I did not enjoy this book at all. I had to almost force myself to finish it to the end in order to provide a review.
It was not so much the portrayal of Anne Boleyn as a harlot. That I can deal with if it is well written. However, all the characters were one sided and were never rounded out.
The dialogue was atrocious for England in the 1500's - and sounded more like something an Essex girl would say down the pub. And Anne Boleyn quoting Macbeth - a play not written at this point in time is completely horrific! Overuse of Americanisms as well - I highly doubt Henry VIII sounded like some homeboy from the hood.
The use of Mark Smeaton as the main character would have been interesting but for the fact that he simply did not fit with his historical persona at all.
I was quite disappointed as the author is an excellent historical biographer but this was one to relegate to the charity shop pile unfortunately.
Warning to Anne fans - she is only in 4 out of the 7 chapters and is a sideline character if anything.
It was not so much the portrayal of Anne Boleyn as a harlot. That I can deal with if it is well written. However, all the characters were one sided and were never rounded out.
The dialogue was atrocious for England in the 1500's - and sounded more like something an Essex girl would say down the pub. And Anne Boleyn quoting Macbeth - a play not written at this point in time is completely horrific! Overuse of Americanisms as well - I highly doubt Henry VIII sounded like some homeboy from the hood.
The use of Mark Smeaton as the main character would have been interesting but for the fact that he simply did not fit with his historical persona at all.
I was quite disappointed as the author is an excellent historical biographer but this was one to relegate to the charity shop pile unfortunately.
Warning to Anne fans - she is only in 4 out of the 7 chapters and is a sideline character if anything.
August 15, 2016
this was hilariously bad.
January 2, 2015
Makes me want to read more English history. An excellent tale of intrigue.
January 25, 2015
worst book i've ever read about Anne Boleyn
April 17, 2016
I hated this book and now wonder why I didn't read the reviews. Obviously whoever wrote this thinks lady Mary & Katherine are st.s and everyone esle is a whore.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews