What do you think?
Rate this book
Falling Pomegranate Seeds #2
Falling Pomegranate Seeds: All Manner of Things #2
Winter, 1539: María de Salinas is dying. Too ill to travel, she writes a letter to her daughter Katherine, the young duchess of Suffolk. A letter telling of her life: a life intertwined with her friend and cousin Catalina of Aragon, the youngest child of Isabel of Castile. It is a letter to help her daughter understand the choices she has made in her life, beginning from the time she keeps her vow to Catalina to share her life of exile in England.
Friendship, betrayal, hatred, forgiveness – All Manner of Things tells a story of how love wins out in the end.
Friendship, betrayal, hatred, forgiveness – All Manner of Things tells a story of how love wins out in the end.
- GenresHistorical Fiction
576 pages, Paperback
Published January 15, 2021
78 people are currently reading
158 people want to read
About the author
Wendy J. Dunn
13 books205 followersWENDY J. DUNN is an award-winning Australian writer fascinated by Tudor history – so much so she was not surprised to discover a family connection to the Tudors, not long after the publication of her first Anne Boleyn novel, which narrated the Anne Boleyn story through the eyes of Sir Thomas Wyatt, the elder. Her family tree reveals the intriguing fact that one of her ancestral families – possibly over three generations – had purchased land from both the Boleyn and Wyatt families to build up their holdings. It seems very likely Wendy’s ancestors knew the Wyatts and Boleyns personally. Wendy is married, the mother of four adult children and the grandmother of two amazing boys. She gained her PhD in 2014 and loves walking in the footsteps of the historical people she gives voice to in her books. Wendy also tutors writing at Swinburne University of Technology, Australia.
Follow me at Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorwendyj...
Bookbub:https://www.bookbub.com/profile/wendy...
Twitter: @wendyjdunn
Instagram: wendyjdunnauthor
Follow me at Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorwendyj...
Bookbub:https://www.bookbub.com/profile/wendy...
Twitter: @wendyjdunn
Instagram: wendyjdunnauthor
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
July 1, 2022
Sharing the official segment from the launch of Falling Pomegranate Seeds: All Manner of Things - which happened on 9th of January. I was very honoured to have my niece's partner sing John Dowland's 1570 'Flow my tears'. My tears almost flowed while Joel was singing. I was also very honoured to have Dr Carolyn Beasley, my lovely boss and one of my dearest friends, launch the book for me, after which I nervously read for five minutes. One good thing about being filmed is that I am now returned to my efforts to lose weight. Again. Two COVID lockdowns failed to help me.
Below are links to interviews, online reviews and published pieces about 'writing' All Manner of Things:
I chat with Rebecca Larson from Tudor Dynasty about Maria de Salinas.
All Manner of Things: A Tale of Two Women
Special Guest Post by Wendy J. Dunn, Author of Falling Pomegranate Seeds: All Manner of Things
The Tudor Tracker reviews All Manner of Things
Wendy J Dunn - Queen of Tudor Fiction
February 8, 2020
One of the more extraordinary things achieved by Wendy Dunn’s pen, and imagination, is seeing the Tudor world through sympathetic eyes. Not salacious or brutal, but hauntingly lovely. She sees great personalities through supporting figures, who are not envious nor cruel, but engaged and engaging. She showed it with Thomas Wyatt gazing on Anne Boleyn in “Dear Heart, How like you this?” Here, she brings in María de Salinas to Katherine of Aragon; observer, yes, yet, like her Wyatt, an interesting character in their own right.
Humming with sentiment, Faith, love, goodness, and friendship, this novel is a triumph in the world of Tudor fiction, in which Dunn has brought her established skills to present the brilliant yet brutal career of Henry VIII’s first wife to life with subtle, suggestive, and loving detail. I felt sincerely moved by the voice of María, passionate and evolving, and privileged to read it.
Humming with sentiment, Faith, love, goodness, and friendship, this novel is a triumph in the world of Tudor fiction, in which Dunn has brought her established skills to present the brilliant yet brutal career of Henry VIII’s first wife to life with subtle, suggestive, and loving detail. I felt sincerely moved by the voice of María, passionate and evolving, and privileged to read it.
January 27, 2021
All Manner of Things by Wendy J. Dunn is the second book in the Falling Pomegranate Seeds series, although it works perfectly well as a standalone. In fact, if you didn’t know it was part of a series, nothing in the pages would tell you. You do not feel as if you are missing part of the story, or need to read the first book in the series, The Duty of Daughters, to grasp what is going on. Which makes it eminently readable for everyone.
And what a fabulous book it is!
All Manner of Things follows the story of Infanta Catalina (Katherine of Aragon) from her journey to the English court to marry Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales, to the Field of the Cloth of Gold of 1520, when Henry VIII met Francis I in a spectacular display of pageantry and might. The event also marked the introduction of Anne Boleyn to English affairs; Anne was still in the service of Queen Claude of France but returned to England soon afterwards.
The story tells of the pitifully short marriage of Catalina and Arthur, the lonely years following Arthur’s death, when Catalina was a hostage, in all but name, of the English king, Henry VII, and the early years of her marriage to King Henry VIII. Historically, it documents how the relationship between Henry and Catalina changed over time, how a promising marriage and love was soured by Henry’s frequent infidelities, Catalina’s miscarriages and the many lost infants that turned a loving relationship sour.
All Manner of Things by Wendy J. Dunn is told through the eyes of Maria de Salinas, Catalina’s closest friend and companion, though no fan of Henry VIII, which puts an interesting slant on the story and shows Henry in two lights: how he is adored by his wife, and how his wife’s friend sees him. It is an interesting dichotomy that works wonderfully in the novel and demonstrates the author’s deep understanding of the Tudor court and the personalities involved.
The overriding theme of this book is friendship and love; the sisterly love and friendship between Catalina (Katherine of Aragon) and her childhood friend and almost-constant companion, Maria de Salinas.
Having researched Maria’s story myself, Maria’s life at court, marriage and constant support for her friend and queen, it is obvious that Wendy J. Dunn has done her homework. In All Manner of Things, Wendy J. Dunn captures wonderfully not only the friendship between Catalina (Katherine of Aragon’s name in her native Castilian) and Maria, but also the complications that arise from life at the Tudor court, and a friendship with a queen.
Wendy J. Dunn expertly recreates the Tudor court, the glamour of the royal family and the drama associated with all aspects of their lives – and of the lives of those who serve them. The reader is drawn into the relationships, the intrigues and the underlying falsehoods that accompany any court, expertly contrasting the ‘show’ with the friendships and relationships behind the scenes, of the queen with her ladies. The glamour of court life itself reveals the contradictions, and the changing relationships as the characters grow and are affected by the challenges they face and the secrets they have to keep.
Wendy J. Dunn wonderfully combines the history and fiction to create a gripping drama, where you will find it hard to know where fact ends and fiction begins. The storytelling is first class!
And what a fabulous book it is!
All Manner of Things follows the story of Infanta Catalina (Katherine of Aragon) from her journey to the English court to marry Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales, to the Field of the Cloth of Gold of 1520, when Henry VIII met Francis I in a spectacular display of pageantry and might. The event also marked the introduction of Anne Boleyn to English affairs; Anne was still in the service of Queen Claude of France but returned to England soon afterwards.
The story tells of the pitifully short marriage of Catalina and Arthur, the lonely years following Arthur’s death, when Catalina was a hostage, in all but name, of the English king, Henry VII, and the early years of her marriage to King Henry VIII. Historically, it documents how the relationship between Henry and Catalina changed over time, how a promising marriage and love was soured by Henry’s frequent infidelities, Catalina’s miscarriages and the many lost infants that turned a loving relationship sour.
All Manner of Things by Wendy J. Dunn is told through the eyes of Maria de Salinas, Catalina’s closest friend and companion, though no fan of Henry VIII, which puts an interesting slant on the story and shows Henry in two lights: how he is adored by his wife, and how his wife’s friend sees him. It is an interesting dichotomy that works wonderfully in the novel and demonstrates the author’s deep understanding of the Tudor court and the personalities involved.
The overriding theme of this book is friendship and love; the sisterly love and friendship between Catalina (Katherine of Aragon) and her childhood friend and almost-constant companion, Maria de Salinas.
Having researched Maria’s story myself, Maria’s life at court, marriage and constant support for her friend and queen, it is obvious that Wendy J. Dunn has done her homework. In All Manner of Things, Wendy J. Dunn captures wonderfully not only the friendship between Catalina (Katherine of Aragon’s name in her native Castilian) and Maria, but also the complications that arise from life at the Tudor court, and a friendship with a queen.
Wendy J. Dunn expertly recreates the Tudor court, the glamour of the royal family and the drama associated with all aspects of their lives – and of the lives of those who serve them. The reader is drawn into the relationships, the intrigues and the underlying falsehoods that accompany any court, expertly contrasting the ‘show’ with the friendships and relationships behind the scenes, of the queen with her ladies. The glamour of court life itself reveals the contradictions, and the changing relationships as the characters grow and are affected by the challenges they face and the secrets they have to keep.
Wendy J. Dunn wonderfully combines the history and fiction to create a gripping drama, where you will find it hard to know where fact ends and fiction begins. The storytelling is first class!
November 30, 2020
I was aware of Maria de Salinas before reading this but had little knowledge of her own story.
Dunn has written such a beautiful story of the love and friendship between Katherine of Aragon and her lady in waiting Maria de Salinas, from the viewpoint of Maria as she recalls her life in a letter to her daughter as she nears death. Through Maria the reader experiences Katherine's story as well as Maria's. Both lived exceptional lives and their bond of friendship is beautiful to read about.
Maria left Spain with Katherine and remained with her most of her life. This book really brings Katherine's story to life, from leaving her family, marrying Arthur, many heartbreaking miscarriages and her marriage to Henry. Maria is by her side through it all whilst also facing her own disappointments and heartbreaks and battling her dislike for Henry.
It's a tale of two sides, there are some extremely happy moments and some really sad, I almost had tears in my eyes towards the end.
If you have a love of the Tudor court then this is definitely one you should read, the gowns, jewels and court are all described so vividly.
I thoroughly enjoyed how the narrative switched between the letter to the time of the memory, it was a great way of transporting the reader back in time.
I think this book will actually stay with me for a while but I was pleased to note this is actually the second in the series so will be reading the first shortly!
Dunn has written such a beautiful story of the love and friendship between Katherine of Aragon and her lady in waiting Maria de Salinas, from the viewpoint of Maria as she recalls her life in a letter to her daughter as she nears death. Through Maria the reader experiences Katherine's story as well as Maria's. Both lived exceptional lives and their bond of friendship is beautiful to read about.
Maria left Spain with Katherine and remained with her most of her life. This book really brings Katherine's story to life, from leaving her family, marrying Arthur, many heartbreaking miscarriages and her marriage to Henry. Maria is by her side through it all whilst also facing her own disappointments and heartbreaks and battling her dislike for Henry.
It's a tale of two sides, there are some extremely happy moments and some really sad, I almost had tears in my eyes towards the end.
If you have a love of the Tudor court then this is definitely one you should read, the gowns, jewels and court are all described so vividly.
I thoroughly enjoyed how the narrative switched between the letter to the time of the memory, it was a great way of transporting the reader back in time.
I think this book will actually stay with me for a while but I was pleased to note this is actually the second in the series so will be reading the first shortly!
October 14, 2020
Manner of All Things is the long awaited Book Two of Wendy J Dunn’s historical drama, Falling Pomegranate Seeds – The Duty of Daughters.
Dunn demonstrates why she is the Tudor times storyteller of today. Book One was captivating; the Book Two is superb, and a stand-alone work with enough embedded backstory to inform any reader.
Dunn doesn’t disappoint. This unavoidably tragic story is punctuated with her delightful sense of humour, spicy yet tasteful romance, arrogance and action, page-turning intrigue, twists and turns when you least expect them and vindication.
Book Two tells the story of Catalina (Katherine) of Aragon, through the eyes of her faithful (amiga) cousin, companion and confidant—Maria. We learn the disastrous deeds they suffer as “daughters of duty” in marriages, childbirth, the secrets and lies of English and French Courts and more.
The plot is coloured with insightful letters, poems, sonnets and songs. The unravelling story reveals why it is so important for the dying Maria to divulge the necessary struggles in her life in a letter to her daughter.
Tudor times were unforgiving and secrets were kept close or lose your head. Maria’s honours her duties far and beyond human grace to her cousin who becomes Queen Katherine of England.
We feel every uncomfortable moment of the cousins’ journeys across treacherous oceans, years of bitter cold British winters, dark and desolate nights, poverty and starvation in royalty, countless pressure on the female form due to multiple births, pathetic power struggles and wars between men and their alliances, loathsome lust and rape, all shadowed by the threat of the Tower and its torture and death. This all entwined with the delicate everlasting stories of love and honesty.
Dunn’s engaging prose unravels their individual lives encompassing family, kingdoms and endeavouring to maintain self-respect.
Katherine of England and her cousin Maria both endure loss and forbidden loves. Whilst Catalina suffers more loss than most can bear—family members, a husband, her familiar home and children. Maria suffers a similar fate.
Dunn will have you wondering and reading faster.
Catalina is haunted by sleepless nights and a tale of death, whilst Maria quells her overwhelming love for a married man in Court. Do they dare consummate their desires? Maria must contemplate her chastity, happiness, loyalty and serving her Queen.
Dunn’s detailed research and morality is obvious again in Book Two, as are the memorable poems at the beginning of every chapter—a sneak preview of what’s to come.
Dunn employs Maria’s internal dialogue and other narratives (letters to her former tutor and mother), to keep the reader informed of the plot. Her dynamic dialogue will have you loving her characters and loathing others instantly.
Manner of All Things is a tale of human audacity. An uplifting read in times of despair or leisure. Only spoiler here—you may well smile, snigger and laugh out loud or curse some of her characters, shed a tear and then rejoice in some of the outcomes.
Wendy J Dunn’s period writing is discerning and precise. Her descriptive passages of history and truth educate and encourage simultaneously.
Book Two is an honest interpretation of how life imitated art then and is still valid today. It’s a story for women and men regardless of age, culture or faith. Book Two contains two parts and double the intrigue and is close to 600 pages! Keep an eye on Goodreads for Book Three?
Wendy J Dunn has crafted another remarkable work. She is a “way-shower” in text. This book is not a sequel; it’s a superb account of true events, embellished with a huge helping of hearsay, undertakings and love.
Dunn demonstrates why she is the Tudor times storyteller of today. Book One was captivating; the Book Two is superb, and a stand-alone work with enough embedded backstory to inform any reader.
Dunn doesn’t disappoint. This unavoidably tragic story is punctuated with her delightful sense of humour, spicy yet tasteful romance, arrogance and action, page-turning intrigue, twists and turns when you least expect them and vindication.
Book Two tells the story of Catalina (Katherine) of Aragon, through the eyes of her faithful (amiga) cousin, companion and confidant—Maria. We learn the disastrous deeds they suffer as “daughters of duty” in marriages, childbirth, the secrets and lies of English and French Courts and more.
The plot is coloured with insightful letters, poems, sonnets and songs. The unravelling story reveals why it is so important for the dying Maria to divulge the necessary struggles in her life in a letter to her daughter.
Tudor times were unforgiving and secrets were kept close or lose your head. Maria’s honours her duties far and beyond human grace to her cousin who becomes Queen Katherine of England.
We feel every uncomfortable moment of the cousins’ journeys across treacherous oceans, years of bitter cold British winters, dark and desolate nights, poverty and starvation in royalty, countless pressure on the female form due to multiple births, pathetic power struggles and wars between men and their alliances, loathsome lust and rape, all shadowed by the threat of the Tower and its torture and death. This all entwined with the delicate everlasting stories of love and honesty.
Dunn’s engaging prose unravels their individual lives encompassing family, kingdoms and endeavouring to maintain self-respect.
Katherine of England and her cousin Maria both endure loss and forbidden loves. Whilst Catalina suffers more loss than most can bear—family members, a husband, her familiar home and children. Maria suffers a similar fate.
Dunn will have you wondering and reading faster.
Catalina is haunted by sleepless nights and a tale of death, whilst Maria quells her overwhelming love for a married man in Court. Do they dare consummate their desires? Maria must contemplate her chastity, happiness, loyalty and serving her Queen.
Dunn’s detailed research and morality is obvious again in Book Two, as are the memorable poems at the beginning of every chapter—a sneak preview of what’s to come.
Dunn employs Maria’s internal dialogue and other narratives (letters to her former tutor and mother), to keep the reader informed of the plot. Her dynamic dialogue will have you loving her characters and loathing others instantly.
Manner of All Things is a tale of human audacity. An uplifting read in times of despair or leisure. Only spoiler here—you may well smile, snigger and laugh out loud or curse some of her characters, shed a tear and then rejoice in some of the outcomes.
Wendy J Dunn’s period writing is discerning and precise. Her descriptive passages of history and truth educate and encourage simultaneously.
Book Two is an honest interpretation of how life imitated art then and is still valid today. It’s a story for women and men regardless of age, culture or faith. Book Two contains two parts and double the intrigue and is close to 600 pages! Keep an eye on Goodreads for Book Three?
Wendy J Dunn has crafted another remarkable work. She is a “way-shower” in text. This book is not a sequel; it’s a superb account of true events, embellished with a huge helping of hearsay, undertakings and love.
March 4, 2021
I found this novel to be a different approach to Katherine of Aragon than I was used to. Told from the point of view of her companion and best friend Maria, we see a Katherine who is hopelessly unhappy. From the first, she was guilt-ridden because the innocent young Earl of Warwick was executed so that she could marry Arthur, heir to the English throne. It was her father’s doing; Ferdinand would not countenance her marriage as long as a claimant to the throne still lived. This self-reproach colored her view of the world for the rest of her life. It looked for a while that the love between Katherine and Arthur would wash away her unhappiness, but his untimely death just proved that she was destined to suffer. When Queen Elizabeth proposed to her that she should marry Harry, Arthur’s younger brother, she was dubious. As explained by the queen:
“His sister Margaret weds soon the King of Scotland and is acknowledged by all at Court as Scotland’s queen.” The queen shook her head. “He knows full well that being prince gives him greater right than an ordinary child. But the day when he needed to give precedence to his sister, may the good Lord have mercy on us. The temper! I wish to speak no disrespect of the dead, but his temper is evil, just like my mother’s, God give her peace. My son is only a boy but so tall and strong. If you gave him a quick glance, you’d be forgiven for thinking Harry a young man already. I fear he won’t be much longer without knowledge of women.”
Catalina looked at the queen with wide eyes. “Why me? Why do you want me for your son?”
The queen inhaled a deep breath, sucking in her lower lip. She lifted her chin; her blue eyes glowed like sapphires set in ermine. “My Kate, because you fear God. With God’s help, and with yours, I hope to see all my fears about Harry come to nought.”
This was certainly not the most encouraging proposal to a recently bereaved girl-widow. But Katherine knew her duty. Of course, she was not to know that she and her household were destined to undergo seven long years of destitution before the proposed marriage came to pass. Ferdinand couldn’t be bothered paying his daughter’s dowry since Arthur’s death rendered Katherine irrelevant. Of course, her penury went far to justify that she deserved to suffer for Warwick’s death.
During all this, Maria supported her mistress as best as she could. We suffer with her through Katherine’s long and disagreeable widowhood. Then, when Henry VIII became king and married Katherine, Maria is the one who saw through his bluff exterior. She disliked and distrusted him from the first, even though her naïve mistress felt just the opposite. That didn’t last long! As things went from bad to worse for Katherine, Maria tried to snatch at a little happiness for herself. But, true to form, Henry had to poison her life, too. We get very little joy in this book, which I suppose is appropriate for such a sad life—or lives, if we count Maria, too.
“His sister Margaret weds soon the King of Scotland and is acknowledged by all at Court as Scotland’s queen.” The queen shook her head. “He knows full well that being prince gives him greater right than an ordinary child. But the day when he needed to give precedence to his sister, may the good Lord have mercy on us. The temper! I wish to speak no disrespect of the dead, but his temper is evil, just like my mother’s, God give her peace. My son is only a boy but so tall and strong. If you gave him a quick glance, you’d be forgiven for thinking Harry a young man already. I fear he won’t be much longer without knowledge of women.”
Catalina looked at the queen with wide eyes. “Why me? Why do you want me for your son?”
The queen inhaled a deep breath, sucking in her lower lip. She lifted her chin; her blue eyes glowed like sapphires set in ermine. “My Kate, because you fear God. With God’s help, and with yours, I hope to see all my fears about Harry come to nought.”
This was certainly not the most encouraging proposal to a recently bereaved girl-widow. But Katherine knew her duty. Of course, she was not to know that she and her household were destined to undergo seven long years of destitution before the proposed marriage came to pass. Ferdinand couldn’t be bothered paying his daughter’s dowry since Arthur’s death rendered Katherine irrelevant. Of course, her penury went far to justify that she deserved to suffer for Warwick’s death.
During all this, Maria supported her mistress as best as she could. We suffer with her through Katherine’s long and disagreeable widowhood. Then, when Henry VIII became king and married Katherine, Maria is the one who saw through his bluff exterior. She disliked and distrusted him from the first, even though her naïve mistress felt just the opposite. That didn’t last long! As things went from bad to worse for Katherine, Maria tried to snatch at a little happiness for herself. But, true to form, Henry had to poison her life, too. We get very little joy in this book, which I suppose is appropriate for such a sad life—or lives, if we count Maria, too.
December 2, 2020
This is a thoroughly convincing read by a highly accomplished Tudor expert. All Manner of Things by Dr. Wendy J. Dunn opens with a powerful Prologue that sets the scene in such vivid detail we feel we are sitting in the same room as Maria as she writes her letter of truth to her daughter, Catalina/Katherine named after her beloved queen, friend and cousin.
The whole novel presents itself this way. We are not casual passengers, remote onlookers, but vigilant interested participants in a story that has become real through Wendy's skilful delivery. Wendy takes us into that world of deceit, grief, glory, harshness and bravery. The Tudor domain was a difficult realm for women as the liberties of today were non-existent. Also, women were blamed for not bearing sons, particularly a cruel accusation for royals. Giving birth, itself, was a challenge. Without modern medical advancements, deaths were high in child and mother. Miscarriages were also heartbreaking occurrences and we agonise over the fact that Katherine of Aragon’s history during her marriage to King Henry VIII was filled with these numerous losses.
We learn much of these events through Maria, friend and cousin of Katherine. Maria’s life is so intertwined with Katherine’s – their pain is shared and shown together with great kindness and care by Wendy. Maria is devout in serving her queen until she dies.
Maria’s life itself is a fascinating one and it is a clever approach to have her write a letter to her daughter to explain her life and how she came to her lot. Her grief has been a burden she wishes to unload and she desires to explain to her daughter, her life’s journey. The letter’s purpose to ‘make the daughter understand the little power women have over their lives’ is pure and passionate.
Rather than reveal more about this novel, I recommend every interested person in Tudor history to get their own copy January 15, ’21 and embark on your own journey with these courageous women from the past. You will enjoy the historical accuracy but even more you will experience first-hand the power of friendship, faith and love. The novel is sprinkled with letters, poems, sonnets and songs to help broaden the journey and shed light on the truth but these creative expressions will pull you in to the emotional side of the story where you will cry, smile, wince, sigh. I highly recommend this heart felt, literary epic. Like the ancient bells tolling from the past, this novel will ring through the centuries. Five stars.
The whole novel presents itself this way. We are not casual passengers, remote onlookers, but vigilant interested participants in a story that has become real through Wendy's skilful delivery. Wendy takes us into that world of deceit, grief, glory, harshness and bravery. The Tudor domain was a difficult realm for women as the liberties of today were non-existent. Also, women were blamed for not bearing sons, particularly a cruel accusation for royals. Giving birth, itself, was a challenge. Without modern medical advancements, deaths were high in child and mother. Miscarriages were also heartbreaking occurrences and we agonise over the fact that Katherine of Aragon’s history during her marriage to King Henry VIII was filled with these numerous losses.
We learn much of these events through Maria, friend and cousin of Katherine. Maria’s life is so intertwined with Katherine’s – their pain is shared and shown together with great kindness and care by Wendy. Maria is devout in serving her queen until she dies.
Maria’s life itself is a fascinating one and it is a clever approach to have her write a letter to her daughter to explain her life and how she came to her lot. Her grief has been a burden she wishes to unload and she desires to explain to her daughter, her life’s journey. The letter’s purpose to ‘make the daughter understand the little power women have over their lives’ is pure and passionate.
Rather than reveal more about this novel, I recommend every interested person in Tudor history to get their own copy January 15, ’21 and embark on your own journey with these courageous women from the past. You will enjoy the historical accuracy but even more you will experience first-hand the power of friendship, faith and love. The novel is sprinkled with letters, poems, sonnets and songs to help broaden the journey and shed light on the truth but these creative expressions will pull you in to the emotional side of the story where you will cry, smile, wince, sigh. I highly recommend this heart felt, literary epic. Like the ancient bells tolling from the past, this novel will ring through the centuries. Five stars.
January 3, 2021
In 1501 Spanish born Maria de Salinas travels to England with her cousin, Catalina of Aragon, promised to The Prince of Wales, Arthur Tudor. Far from home in a foreign land, the cousins grow closer together, and Maria vows to stand at Catalina’s side forever.
Catalina weds Prince Arthur and soon grows to care for him, despite his weak constitution. But happiness does not roost at her doorstep long when death comes calling for the prince.
Heartbroken, Catalina can’t imagine her life married to Arthur’s younger brother, Henry, but with time her feelings change. When he comes of age, Catalina marries Henry. Although they enjoy months of wedded bliss, Henry has a roving eye and soon seeks his comfort elsewhere, especially during Catalina’s pregnancies. Henry even threatens Maria, making her promise something she loathes to give.
With the death of his father, Henry is crowned king and Catalina queen. Much joy and sorrow unfolds as the years pass for both Catalina and Maria. Maria wonders if she will ever be free to fully love the man who’s captured her heart, while Catalina turns the other cheek to Henry’s betrayals and learns to keep living through seasons of grief.
Will Maria stay loyal to her cousin to the end and still find her own happiness? Will Catalina, Katherine, be forgiving of the injustices she suffers and continue to love the King? Can she forgive his final betrayal?
Readers of detailed and meaty historical fiction will be enthralled with this enchanting Tudor saga of friendship and betrayal, embroiled in both love and hatred and steeped in the drama of two entwined families.
Dunn’s prose creates a strong, poetic structure for the drama to unfold, and she so aptly and skillfully weaves the setting to allow the reader to be fully submerged into the reign of Henry VIII and the life of Catalina of Aragon.
NOTE: For those who are sensitive to sexual content, there are a few detailed scenes in the book.
Catalina weds Prince Arthur and soon grows to care for him, despite his weak constitution. But happiness does not roost at her doorstep long when death comes calling for the prince.
Heartbroken, Catalina can’t imagine her life married to Arthur’s younger brother, Henry, but with time her feelings change. When he comes of age, Catalina marries Henry. Although they enjoy months of wedded bliss, Henry has a roving eye and soon seeks his comfort elsewhere, especially during Catalina’s pregnancies. Henry even threatens Maria, making her promise something she loathes to give.
With the death of his father, Henry is crowned king and Catalina queen. Much joy and sorrow unfolds as the years pass for both Catalina and Maria. Maria wonders if she will ever be free to fully love the man who’s captured her heart, while Catalina turns the other cheek to Henry’s betrayals and learns to keep living through seasons of grief.
Will Maria stay loyal to her cousin to the end and still find her own happiness? Will Catalina, Katherine, be forgiving of the injustices she suffers and continue to love the King? Can she forgive his final betrayal?
Readers of detailed and meaty historical fiction will be enthralled with this enchanting Tudor saga of friendship and betrayal, embroiled in both love and hatred and steeped in the drama of two entwined families.
Dunn’s prose creates a strong, poetic structure for the drama to unfold, and she so aptly and skillfully weaves the setting to allow the reader to be fully submerged into the reign of Henry VIII and the life of Catalina of Aragon.
NOTE: For those who are sensitive to sexual content, there are a few detailed scenes in the book.
November 26, 2019
Maria and Catalina are cousins and best friends. As young girls, they vow never to be apart - but that promise is tested when Catalina is sent to England to make a favourable marriage to England’s future king. Exiled together from their beloved Spain, the two women face prejudice, betrayal and loss. The Tudor court is a place of danger, ambition and desire where even the most powerful women must subjugate themselves to men’s wills. At times, the women’s friendship and support of each other is their only salvation, their shared love for their home country a dream which unites them even when disaster threatens. Forced to defend their faith - and their friendship - against an English alliance determined to engineer their downfall, Maria and Catalina’s fates are hopelessly entwined. Can they survive?
In vivid, sparkling prose Wendy Dunn breathes life into this heartbreaking tale of female friendship. Seen through the eyes of Maria, her beloved companion, Catalina is a spirited heroine who did not deserve the trials she ultimately faced at the hands of her her duplicitous husband. This book is a beautiful and fitting end to Wendy Dunn’s popular series Falling Pomegranate Seeds. In fact, it is her best book yet.
In vivid, sparkling prose Wendy Dunn breathes life into this heartbreaking tale of female friendship. Seen through the eyes of Maria, her beloved companion, Catalina is a spirited heroine who did not deserve the trials she ultimately faced at the hands of her her duplicitous husband. This book is a beautiful and fitting end to Wendy Dunn’s popular series Falling Pomegranate Seeds. In fact, it is her best book yet.
October 19, 2020
Wendy Dunn has managed to weave a story filled with wonderful imagery that breathes the life and times of these characters into full colourful life. I can feel the sun on my face and want to chase the dragonfly. The characters are well rounded and endearing and the structure pulls the reader from one exciting episode to the next. Each plays our emotions like a professional musician, from pathos through to rejoicing and take the reader on a journey overflowing with love, devotion, trickery and death. The language has a music of its own. These well-researched books sing directly to the heart. Magnificent.
September 6, 2021
Winter, 1539: María de Salinas is dying. Too ill to travel, she writes a letter to her daughter Katherine, the young duchess of Suffolk. A letter telling of her life: a life intertwined with her friend and cousin Catalina of Aragon, the youngest child of Isabel of Castile. It is a letter to help her daughter understand the choices she has made in her life, beginning from the time she keeps her vow to Catalina to share her life of exile in England. Friendship. Betrayal. Hatred. Forgiveness. Love wins out in the end.
The year is 1501 and a retinue of retainers and attendants is accompanying the royal daughter of Spain, Catalina of Aragon, from Spain to England where she will meet and wed the heir to the English throne, the young Prince Arthur Tudor, son of Henry VII. Among her attendants is her dearest friend María de Salinas, who brings with her a love of music and poetry and a rich knowledge of herbalism and healing. Maria and Catalina are all of fifteen years old at this point, just past childhood, but nonetheless pawns in the great chess match of alliances and pacts between the great powers of sixteenth-century Europe.
All Manner of Things is the second book in the series Falling Pomegranate Seeds, which traces the life of Catalina of Aragon, youngest daughter of King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile.
The story is told through María’s eyes as, towards the end of her life, she pens a letter to her daughter. Through her recollections, her own letters to her tutor back in Spain, poetry, and a selection of texts from the period, we accompany her through the years. It is her own story that she tells to her daughter, but it is not only her story, for as one of Catalina’s noble serving women, Maria’s story is inextricably entwined with that of the princess.
Thus it is that the reader joins the royal retinue, moving from those first days of separation from family and everything they know, to England’s cold and foreign shores, to life under the protection – or is that imprisonment? – of Henry Tudor. Maria stays with her dear friend during a short and heartbreaking half-marriage with gentle Prince Arthur, and through a tumultuous second marriage to the young and brash new king of England, Henry VIII, when she becomes known to her people as Queen Catherine, and to the history books as Catherine of Aragon.
Author Wendy J. Dunn paints an exquisitely detailed picture of the English court at the time. She brings us into the castles and courts of the kings where we meet stern and forbidding Henry Tudor and his compassionate wife. We celebrate the growing affection between Catalina and Arthur and grieve with the princess at her royal husband’s death. And then, through years of spiteful neglect, we struggle with the Spanish contingent as they exist in a strained limbo, Catalina being neither wife nor widow, playthings to the men of power as they work their machinations of politics.
Likewise, we are witness to the casual brutality and violence of Henry VIII’s regime once he takes power, and cry with the new queen with each lost baby as she watches her new husband’s affection ebb in his quest for passion and an heir. And all around, the politics swirls, touching the edges of the narrative with its relentlessness, casting the powerlessness of the women into sharp relief.
This, Ms. Dunn accomplishes with a deft hand. Under the guidance of her pen, the men and women from our history books take on real life. Through meticulous research and skilled characterization, they become flesh and blood, cruel and kind, selfish and loving, and very real. She also takes the convoluted political manoeuvrings of the early sixteenth century and frames them in a context that renders them immediate and comprehensible. All those alliances and pacts and agreements that cover the pages of our textbooks are made real on the pages of her book. These actors are not an assortment of names and titles, but they are Catalina’s kin. And as Catalina discovers her place in this world of shifting alliances, so too does María come to terms with her own fate, and that of her family.
While the narrative arc of All Manner of Things is as carefully constructed as any novel, the main events are true and the characters were real people. Catalina, of course, was Henry VIII’s first wife, and María was indeed one of her attendants. And as Catalina grows from timid and superstitious girl into a woman fit to be Queen of England, so does María grow. Her final act of love towards her friend – no spoilers – shows how strong her difficult life made her. This, too, was a real event. María, it seems, might have been a pawn in the hands of the powerful men around her, but she was not one to just give up, and we love her more for it.
My quibbles about this book are few and far between. It was, perhaps, a bit slow at the beginning, and I would have liked to know more about María’s life after her marriage, although that was not the focus of the story. There were also one or two small threads of narrative that were left unresolved, tensions raised and then abandoned. But these were very minor issues, more of a wish-list than a litany of complaints.
In sum, I can think of almost nothing I would change about this book. It is beautifully written with realistic and sympathetic characters, and shot through with the golden threads of music and poetry that bring the era to full life. If Tudor history is your passion – or even if it’s not – this is a book to enjoy again and again.
Five Stars from The Historical Fiction Company, “Highly Recommended” Award
The year is 1501 and a retinue of retainers and attendants is accompanying the royal daughter of Spain, Catalina of Aragon, from Spain to England where she will meet and wed the heir to the English throne, the young Prince Arthur Tudor, son of Henry VII. Among her attendants is her dearest friend María de Salinas, who brings with her a love of music and poetry and a rich knowledge of herbalism and healing. Maria and Catalina are all of fifteen years old at this point, just past childhood, but nonetheless pawns in the great chess match of alliances and pacts between the great powers of sixteenth-century Europe.
All Manner of Things is the second book in the series Falling Pomegranate Seeds, which traces the life of Catalina of Aragon, youngest daughter of King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile.
The story is told through María’s eyes as, towards the end of her life, she pens a letter to her daughter. Through her recollections, her own letters to her tutor back in Spain, poetry, and a selection of texts from the period, we accompany her through the years. It is her own story that she tells to her daughter, but it is not only her story, for as one of Catalina’s noble serving women, Maria’s story is inextricably entwined with that of the princess.
Thus it is that the reader joins the royal retinue, moving from those first days of separation from family and everything they know, to England’s cold and foreign shores, to life under the protection – or is that imprisonment? – of Henry Tudor. Maria stays with her dear friend during a short and heartbreaking half-marriage with gentle Prince Arthur, and through a tumultuous second marriage to the young and brash new king of England, Henry VIII, when she becomes known to her people as Queen Catherine, and to the history books as Catherine of Aragon.
Author Wendy J. Dunn paints an exquisitely detailed picture of the English court at the time. She brings us into the castles and courts of the kings where we meet stern and forbidding Henry Tudor and his compassionate wife. We celebrate the growing affection between Catalina and Arthur and grieve with the princess at her royal husband’s death. And then, through years of spiteful neglect, we struggle with the Spanish contingent as they exist in a strained limbo, Catalina being neither wife nor widow, playthings to the men of power as they work their machinations of politics.
Likewise, we are witness to the casual brutality and violence of Henry VIII’s regime once he takes power, and cry with the new queen with each lost baby as she watches her new husband’s affection ebb in his quest for passion and an heir. And all around, the politics swirls, touching the edges of the narrative with its relentlessness, casting the powerlessness of the women into sharp relief.
This, Ms. Dunn accomplishes with a deft hand. Under the guidance of her pen, the men and women from our history books take on real life. Through meticulous research and skilled characterization, they become flesh and blood, cruel and kind, selfish and loving, and very real. She also takes the convoluted political manoeuvrings of the early sixteenth century and frames them in a context that renders them immediate and comprehensible. All those alliances and pacts and agreements that cover the pages of our textbooks are made real on the pages of her book. These actors are not an assortment of names and titles, but they are Catalina’s kin. And as Catalina discovers her place in this world of shifting alliances, so too does María come to terms with her own fate, and that of her family.
While the narrative arc of All Manner of Things is as carefully constructed as any novel, the main events are true and the characters were real people. Catalina, of course, was Henry VIII’s first wife, and María was indeed one of her attendants. And as Catalina grows from timid and superstitious girl into a woman fit to be Queen of England, so does María grow. Her final act of love towards her friend – no spoilers – shows how strong her difficult life made her. This, too, was a real event. María, it seems, might have been a pawn in the hands of the powerful men around her, but she was not one to just give up, and we love her more for it.
My quibbles about this book are few and far between. It was, perhaps, a bit slow at the beginning, and I would have liked to know more about María’s life after her marriage, although that was not the focus of the story. There were also one or two small threads of narrative that were left unresolved, tensions raised and then abandoned. But these were very minor issues, more of a wish-list than a litany of complaints.
In sum, I can think of almost nothing I would change about this book. It is beautifully written with realistic and sympathetic characters, and shot through with the golden threads of music and poetry that bring the era to full life. If Tudor history is your passion – or even if it’s not – this is a book to enjoy again and again.
Five Stars from The Historical Fiction Company, “Highly Recommended” Award
Read
April 17, 2021All Manner of Things by Wendy J. Dunn
As an established author of two Anne Boleyn novels: Dear Heart, How Like You This? and The Light in the Labyrinth, and a third novel, Falling Pomegranate Seeds: The Duty of Daughters, Dunn now completes her series exploring the life of Katherine of Aragon for those of us enamored of this genre and for anyone interested in historical novels. For those who are intrigued by what goes on behind closed doors in any royal court to date, you will become enthralled with these original stories that merge historical fact with creative fiction seamlessly.
Once in a while there are gems that recreate history and All Manner of Things by Wendy J. Dunn is such a jewel in the crown of her series. In a seemingly endless online aisle strewn with e-books that attempt to exploit an interest in all things Tudor, with the all too familiar clichés that adopt a formulaic approach too often seen in adapted movies and the like, it is timely that we have in our midst a bona fide expert on the subject.
Author Wendy J. Dunn recreates the life and times of the Tudor court, with all of the pomp and fanfare alongside the unrelenting drama that punctuates all aspects of royal life. We are introduced to characters too often ignored or seeming to be of lesser interest, too often silenced, who serve such personalities within such an unforgiving hierarchy. It is these voices that deserve to be liberated, so that the reader is permitted to hear their story.
We are gifted with her latest book All Manner of Things cleverly conceived, adopting an epistolary approach, given the deft inclusion of letters, poems, sonnets, and songs peppered throughout to engage and add spice for its readership. The author plays skillfully upon our heartstrings, with the expertise of those trained in the plucking of the harp and the lute of the Tudor period, to elicit our emotional empathy.
How does a mother help her daughter understand her life choices culminating in a vow to Catalina to share her life of exile in England? We can only learn of these events and find the answers through Maria, friend and cousin of Katherine.
We are moved by the music of Dunn’s carefully orchestrated words in the form of a letter. Envisage, if you will, the travails given rise to a life confined within the walls of the Tudor court, complicated by a friendship with a queen. Here it is where María de Salinas, knowing she is dying, and too ill to travel, writes a letter to her daughter Katherine, the young duchess of Suffolk. It is through the eyes of Maria de Salinas, Catalina’s closest friend and companion that we come to see for ourselves what choices must be made by women. Such insight comes from reading and ultimately learning from the inexorably complex relationships drawn for us in Dunn’s book All Manner of Things, which are set against the hypocrisies and veneers that accompanied royal life in the winter of 1539.
With timeless themes of friendship, betrayal, contempt, and after all manner of things endured, there is this: forgiveness. Such a narrative uplifts us and triumphs with love – not hatred.
As an established author of two Anne Boleyn novels: Dear Heart, How Like You This? and The Light in the Labyrinth, and a third novel, Falling Pomegranate Seeds: The Duty of Daughters, Dunn now completes her series exploring the life of Katherine of Aragon for those of us enamored of this genre and for anyone interested in historical novels. For those who are intrigued by what goes on behind closed doors in any royal court to date, you will become enthralled with these original stories that merge historical fact with creative fiction seamlessly.
Once in a while there are gems that recreate history and All Manner of Things by Wendy J. Dunn is such a jewel in the crown of her series. In a seemingly endless online aisle strewn with e-books that attempt to exploit an interest in all things Tudor, with the all too familiar clichés that adopt a formulaic approach too often seen in adapted movies and the like, it is timely that we have in our midst a bona fide expert on the subject.
Author Wendy J. Dunn recreates the life and times of the Tudor court, with all of the pomp and fanfare alongside the unrelenting drama that punctuates all aspects of royal life. We are introduced to characters too often ignored or seeming to be of lesser interest, too often silenced, who serve such personalities within such an unforgiving hierarchy. It is these voices that deserve to be liberated, so that the reader is permitted to hear their story.
We are gifted with her latest book All Manner of Things cleverly conceived, adopting an epistolary approach, given the deft inclusion of letters, poems, sonnets, and songs peppered throughout to engage and add spice for its readership. The author plays skillfully upon our heartstrings, with the expertise of those trained in the plucking of the harp and the lute of the Tudor period, to elicit our emotional empathy.
How does a mother help her daughter understand her life choices culminating in a vow to Catalina to share her life of exile in England? We can only learn of these events and find the answers through Maria, friend and cousin of Katherine.
We are moved by the music of Dunn’s carefully orchestrated words in the form of a letter. Envisage, if you will, the travails given rise to a life confined within the walls of the Tudor court, complicated by a friendship with a queen. Here it is where María de Salinas, knowing she is dying, and too ill to travel, writes a letter to her daughter Katherine, the young duchess of Suffolk. It is through the eyes of Maria de Salinas, Catalina’s closest friend and companion that we come to see for ourselves what choices must be made by women. Such insight comes from reading and ultimately learning from the inexorably complex relationships drawn for us in Dunn’s book All Manner of Things, which are set against the hypocrisies and veneers that accompanied royal life in the winter of 1539.
With timeless themes of friendship, betrayal, contempt, and after all manner of things endured, there is this: forgiveness. Such a narrative uplifts us and triumphs with love – not hatred.
July 9, 2021
An engaging and deeply empathetic recreation of the friendship between Catalina (or Katherine) of Aragon, the daughter of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, and her loyal lady-in-waiting, Maria de Salinas.
The novel is recounted – unusually – from the perspective of Maria in the form of a letter to her daughter as she nears the end of her life. The external circumstances of Katherine’s life – her departure for England and her marriage first to Prince Arthur and then to King Henry VIII are well documented; but what this novel does is illuminate very plausibly what the interior landscape of the two women’s lives could have felt like, and Maria’s in particular – it is this ability which lies at the core of Wendy Dunn’s power as a historical novelist.
The vividly detailed depictions of life in the Tudor court, both its sumptuousness and its inherent dangerousness, also deserve special mention, as does the impressive research including the light thrown on the role of women in the Tudor era.
Finally, don’t let the fact that this is the second novel in the ‘Falling Pomegranate Seeds’ series make you feel you can’t simply pick it up and read it without having read the first; it works perfectly as a stand-alone narrative. Just make sure you keep some tissues at the ready!
The novel is recounted – unusually – from the perspective of Maria in the form of a letter to her daughter as she nears the end of her life. The external circumstances of Katherine’s life – her departure for England and her marriage first to Prince Arthur and then to King Henry VIII are well documented; but what this novel does is illuminate very plausibly what the interior landscape of the two women’s lives could have felt like, and Maria’s in particular – it is this ability which lies at the core of Wendy Dunn’s power as a historical novelist.
The vividly detailed depictions of life in the Tudor court, both its sumptuousness and its inherent dangerousness, also deserve special mention, as does the impressive research including the light thrown on the role of women in the Tudor era.
Finally, don’t let the fact that this is the second novel in the ‘Falling Pomegranate Seeds’ series make you feel you can’t simply pick it up and read it without having read the first; it works perfectly as a stand-alone narrative. Just make sure you keep some tissues at the ready!
December 16, 2021
Among Catherine of Aragon's ladies was a young woman, who was perhaps a kinswoman, named Maria de Salinas. Maria suffered alongside Catherine during the long years of her widowhood. She remained unmarried until 1516, when she married William Willoughby, 11th Baron Willoughby de Eresby, and their sole child was a daughter named after the Queen. When Catherine lay dying in 1536, it was Maria who rode through the night to be with her friend.
Falling Pomegranate Seeds: All Manner of Things by Wendy J Dunn is the fictional account of the life of Maria de Salinas. We follow the young Maria through the trials and tribulations by the side of Catherine. While deeply connected to the Princess to whom she has sworn her loyalty, she falls deeply in love with the married William Willoughby, whom she would eventually marry after the death of his wife. Although fictional, it is a wonderful look at the Tudor court from a different perspective than that of a King or Queen. However, it does get a little long-winded sometimes, so you may have to keep focus.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the book!
Falling Pomegranate Seeds: All Manner of Things by Wendy J Dunn is the fictional account of the life of Maria de Salinas. We follow the young Maria through the trials and tribulations by the side of Catherine. While deeply connected to the Princess to whom she has sworn her loyalty, she falls deeply in love with the married William Willoughby, whom she would eventually marry after the death of his wife. Although fictional, it is a wonderful look at the Tudor court from a different perspective than that of a King or Queen. However, it does get a little long-winded sometimes, so you may have to keep focus.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the book!
January 18, 2021
I was given this ARC by NetGalley and BooksGoSocial in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.
This is a touching book about Katherine of Aragon, friendship and loyalty. Maria de Salinas is the storyteller in this final book of the Falling Pomegranate series and where it may have helped to read the first book I did not. I was able to follow along with the characters and the writing. Part of this may have been because of my interest in life in this time and the wives of Henry VIII.
Maria's cousin, Catalina, was sent to England to make a good marriage to the future king. Both girls are exiled from their homeland and now face many trials. The court in Tudor times was filled with danger and women were meant to listen and obey the men here. The two women are able to support each other through the hardships and fear.
Wendy Dunn writes about the Tudor times with such depth it is easy to see how this time is important to her, also. Her writing is beautiful, and her characters are rich. I loved this book and I highly recommend it.
This is a touching book about Katherine of Aragon, friendship and loyalty. Maria de Salinas is the storyteller in this final book of the Falling Pomegranate series and where it may have helped to read the first book I did not. I was able to follow along with the characters and the writing. Part of this may have been because of my interest in life in this time and the wives of Henry VIII.
Maria's cousin, Catalina, was sent to England to make a good marriage to the future king. Both girls are exiled from their homeland and now face many trials. The court in Tudor times was filled with danger and women were meant to listen and obey the men here. The two women are able to support each other through the hardships and fear.
Wendy Dunn writes about the Tudor times with such depth it is easy to see how this time is important to her, also. Her writing is beautiful, and her characters are rich. I loved this book and I highly recommend it.
November 28, 2021
Loving description of the bond between Catalina of Aragon and Maria de Salinas. The bond, somewhat sisterly, still remained divided between classes, Queen and servant. The author weaves that throughout the pages of history. Catalina has always had my sympathy and admiration. Catalina was raised to rule and kept that mindset to the end, even after it was obviously over. Maria was raised to serve with love, to be constant and caring. In a world dominated by cruel and selfish men, far from home, they navigate the Tudor court with strength and occasionally blindness to the weakness in others. They had seen their children caught up in this world and died repenting it. So much food for thought.
November 22, 2021
Written in a similar style to the first in this series (Falling Pomegranate Seeds: The Duty of Daughters), the main character is not the Katherine but a loyal cousin and servant who stays with her throughout their lives. A fascinating insight into the lives of royal women of the time and an insight into the inner life of Katherine of Aragon.
May 13, 2022
Falling Pomegranate Seeds: All Manner of Things by Wendy J. Dunn is a beautifully written novel. Friendship and love, betrayal and cruelty... all is there and all is written with style. This is a book you must experience if you're interested in historical novels. I highly recommend it.
June 9, 2021
Wendy is such a huge inspiration to me and I was lucky enough to have received a personalised note in my copy of this wonderful book in supporting her campaign.
My only regret when starting this book is that I hadn’t gotten my hands on the first. This book sparked for me weeks of watching period dramas around this time, wanting more of what I found in this expert Atwood-esc weaving of sorrow and beauty, truth and craft. This book was like an escape into a familiar world of historical prose, poetry and letters. The beautiful descriptions bring all of your senses into the scenes, and tells a story of the interconnected lives of women in a time when their stories could not be told as they were. A refreshing shift that centres the stories of women told with love and honesty.
My only regret when starting this book is that I hadn’t gotten my hands on the first. This book sparked for me weeks of watching period dramas around this time, wanting more of what I found in this expert Atwood-esc weaving of sorrow and beauty, truth and craft. This book was like an escape into a familiar world of historical prose, poetry and letters. The beautiful descriptions bring all of your senses into the scenes, and tells a story of the interconnected lives of women in a time when their stories could not be told as they were. A refreshing shift that centres the stories of women told with love and honesty.
August 22, 2021
Wonderful
This and the book before it are superior.
Each page is written to put you there in the room, the orchard, wherever.
This and the book before it are superior.
Each page is written to put you there in the room, the orchard, wherever.
July 10, 2020
“‘As a girl, I believed the movement of the stars made music we did not even know we heard.’ […] Catalina’s eyes glimmered in the torchlight. She is not looking at the stars. She is gazing back at a time when life contained love’s promise and the sweet essence of youth. […] ‘I am no longer sixteen and believe the stars make music. Astronomical phenomena are like the seasons; they are only the design of God, and to be accepted and welcomed as such.’”
All Manner of Things is award winning author Wendy J. Dunn’s most recent work of accomplished historical fiction. The novel is predominantly set in England between 1501 and 1539. It tells us the story of María de Salinas, lifelong friend of Catalina of Aragon. The time has come for Catalina to marry Prince Arthur, older brother of Prince Henry and heir to England’s throne. Maria leaves the familiarity and warmth of Castile—and of home—to accompany her beloved Catalina to a dark and unfamiliar England. The two young women embark on a difficult journey that is to become their extraordinary yet tragic lives. Seasons turn into years of huddling under layers of robes and furs, barely escaping the icy drafts inside sprawling manors and scarcely heated castles.
Although a lover of history, I wondered at first what business I had even reading a book entwined with the intricacies of Tudor history. Was my knowledge too lacking? I need not have worried – the author presents an engaging narrative, with flowing dialogue and a portrayal of human nature unchanged by the passage of centuries. It is of course apparent that Dunn knows all about this era of history and knows it well. Yet it is clear that the author’s knowledge and observations of life, people and personal conflict also shine through.
The book exquisitely addresses many important and confronting themes, such as rape, stillbirth, murder and adultery. Yet, my favourite scene was when young María first meets the handsome William Willoughby de Eresby:“When he smiled, she found it impossible to look away. Reeling, one hand grasped at her rosary at her waist, and the other rose to her chest. Why does my heart hurt? Her legs quivering like jelly on top of feet of lead, she forced herself to move forward again.
His hand grazed against hers, and scorched her flesh, halting her again.”
Most of all, this book made me fascinate over times long ago, times when ancient buildings were brand new, faded portraits were still sharp and striking and faith and loyalty were absolute; times when women had so little autonomy it was never an option for them to venture out on their own and just ditch this damn place. It was a time when babies were not expected to live, when mothers often died giving birth and bloodletting was a universally accepted medical treatment. And merely saying one wrong word or looking at someone with influence the wrong way meant dishonour, exile or death.
“‘Your highnesses’, the woman said through her tears, ‘I found him like that. He was well and lusty last night, but he did not wake this morning. He did not wake…’
Catalina fell to her knees on the other side of the cradle. She leaned on her son’s cradle, and wept. The king knelt beside her, pulling her into his arms. weeping too. ‘It is God’s will,’ he said.”
Review written by Angela Wauchop for Issue Nine of Backstory:
http://www.backstoryjournal.com.au/20...
February 3, 2021
Several years ago, I had the pleasure of reading Ms Dunn’s book The Light in the Labyrinth in which the sad fate of Anne Boleyn was told from the viewpoint of Anne’s niece. At the time, I was more than impressed by how Ms Dunn managed to bring new life to a story that has been told so often it runs the risk of being boring. In All Manner of Things, Ms Dunn takes us a couple of decades backwards in time, and where in her previous book it was Anne Boleyn who was the tragic protagonist, in this book it is Anne’s predecessor, Catalina of Aragon, who sits at the centre of the story.
Once again, Ms Dunn approaches an oft-told tale. Catalina (or Katherine) is one of those women who seem to have been continuously betrayed by those who should have protected her. Her father showed little concern for her fate, her father-in-law, Henry VII, treated her with anything but kindness and respect after her first husband, Arthur, died. And then came Henry VIII, this charming larger-than-life young king and carried her off to a happily ever after. Not.
Ms Dunn’s prose is beautiful and vibrant. It brings the historical setting into extraordinary life, it whispers a web round the reader that pulls them inexorably into the complexities of life in the 16th century. Sometimes, all these lovely descriptions come at the expense of pace and there are moments when the narrative slows down. Ms Dunn’s love for her period and her evident research compensates for this, as does her Catalina, initially an introverted and intelligent young girl who is thrown rather brutally into the shark-infested waters of English politics, there to swim or drown. She is fortunate in her Arthur—yet another beautiful portrayal, this time of a boy on the cusp of manhood—but life is cruel and soon enough Arthur is gone and Catalina is alone, with only her Spanish companions to offer some support.
Principal among these companions is Maria de Salinas, who indirectly is the protagonist of All Manner of Things, as it is through her eyes we see the story unfold. Maria is loyal to the bitter end and even braves the king’s wrath to comfort and succour Catalina. Ultimately, Maria can do little to save her precious princess. A woman in the 16th century had little protection against the wrath of her husband, no matter how undeserved his anger. And when Henry VIII is thwarted—like when his wife of twenty-four years refuses to agree to a divorce so as to set him free to wed another—his rage is a nasty, twisting thing.
Ms Dunn’s Henry VIII is a man with few if any redeeming qualities. This Henry is lecherous, cruel, and so volatile his own mother fears for the kingdom should her handsome redhaired second son ever sit on the throne, expressing that Harry is too much a copy of her father, Edward IV. While every story needs an antagonist, while Henry’s behaviour towards Catalina is reprehensible, I think this rather black and white depiction of this enigmatic, self-centred king detracts from what is otherwise a multi-layered construction. A more balanced presentation of the Tudor king would have elevated All Manner of Things to an outstanding novel. As it is, Ms Dunn delivers a great and absorbing read, even for a reader such as I who generally prefers to steer well clear of the over-exploited Tudor period!
Reviewed for Discovering Diamonds
Once again, Ms Dunn approaches an oft-told tale. Catalina (or Katherine) is one of those women who seem to have been continuously betrayed by those who should have protected her. Her father showed little concern for her fate, her father-in-law, Henry VII, treated her with anything but kindness and respect after her first husband, Arthur, died. And then came Henry VIII, this charming larger-than-life young king and carried her off to a happily ever after. Not.
Ms Dunn’s prose is beautiful and vibrant. It brings the historical setting into extraordinary life, it whispers a web round the reader that pulls them inexorably into the complexities of life in the 16th century. Sometimes, all these lovely descriptions come at the expense of pace and there are moments when the narrative slows down. Ms Dunn’s love for her period and her evident research compensates for this, as does her Catalina, initially an introverted and intelligent young girl who is thrown rather brutally into the shark-infested waters of English politics, there to swim or drown. She is fortunate in her Arthur—yet another beautiful portrayal, this time of a boy on the cusp of manhood—but life is cruel and soon enough Arthur is gone and Catalina is alone, with only her Spanish companions to offer some support.
Principal among these companions is Maria de Salinas, who indirectly is the protagonist of All Manner of Things, as it is through her eyes we see the story unfold. Maria is loyal to the bitter end and even braves the king’s wrath to comfort and succour Catalina. Ultimately, Maria can do little to save her precious princess. A woman in the 16th century had little protection against the wrath of her husband, no matter how undeserved his anger. And when Henry VIII is thwarted—like when his wife of twenty-four years refuses to agree to a divorce so as to set him free to wed another—his rage is a nasty, twisting thing.
Ms Dunn’s Henry VIII is a man with few if any redeeming qualities. This Henry is lecherous, cruel, and so volatile his own mother fears for the kingdom should her handsome redhaired second son ever sit on the throne, expressing that Harry is too much a copy of her father, Edward IV. While every story needs an antagonist, while Henry’s behaviour towards Catalina is reprehensible, I think this rather black and white depiction of this enigmatic, self-centred king detracts from what is otherwise a multi-layered construction. A more balanced presentation of the Tudor king would have elevated All Manner of Things to an outstanding novel. As it is, Ms Dunn delivers a great and absorbing read, even for a reader such as I who generally prefers to steer well clear of the over-exploited Tudor period!
Reviewed for Discovering Diamonds
January 20, 2021
There was a time when I readily devoured any novel about the Tudors. Unfortunately this led to "Tudor burn out". Now, I only pick up novels that offer a different perspective of those times through the eyes of lesser known historical figures, which is what drew me to Wendy J. Dunn's latest novel. In All Manner of Things the lesser known figure is Maria de Salinas, cousin and lady in waiting to Catalina of Aragon.
Maria has been Catalina's companion since the age of five when the two first met and became inseparable playmates. Originally a bed companion, Maria was treated more as a beloved sister sharing the benefits of Catalina's position and, as the girls grew older, becoming her most trusted confidante. She never thought that a chilhood pact would lead to exile from Spain when the sixteen year old Catalina travels to England to marry Prince Arthur, the heir to the English throne. Although Maria has some qualms at leaving behind her mother and her native country, duty to Catalina comes first, even if it means sacrificing her own dreams and happiness.
Through a letter the dying Maria is writing to her daughter, Katherine, she relates the course of Catalina's life in England so entwined with her own, which she hopes will help her daughter understand the difficult decisions that Maria was forced to make and especially why she agreed to Katherine's marriage to her guardian, the much older Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk.
The details of Catalina's life as the first wife of Henry VIII is well known; her relationship with Maria de Salinas not so much. Wendy J. Dunn has filled in the gaps and penned a beautiful and memorable novel around this relationship, taking the reader on a roller coaster ride of emotions as these two young girls grow into adulthood and navigate the minefield which is the Tudor court. Duty, courage, love and friendship are at the core of this remarkable story. I loved every word and believe it is a must read for both historical fiction fans and Tudor devotees.
I received a complimentary copy of this book as a participant in a book tour.
Maria has been Catalina's companion since the age of five when the two first met and became inseparable playmates. Originally a bed companion, Maria was treated more as a beloved sister sharing the benefits of Catalina's position and, as the girls grew older, becoming her most trusted confidante. She never thought that a chilhood pact would lead to exile from Spain when the sixteen year old Catalina travels to England to marry Prince Arthur, the heir to the English throne. Although Maria has some qualms at leaving behind her mother and her native country, duty to Catalina comes first, even if it means sacrificing her own dreams and happiness.
Through a letter the dying Maria is writing to her daughter, Katherine, she relates the course of Catalina's life in England so entwined with her own, which she hopes will help her daughter understand the difficult decisions that Maria was forced to make and especially why she agreed to Katherine's marriage to her guardian, the much older Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk.
The details of Catalina's life as the first wife of Henry VIII is well known; her relationship with Maria de Salinas not so much. Wendy J. Dunn has filled in the gaps and penned a beautiful and memorable novel around this relationship, taking the reader on a roller coaster ride of emotions as these two young girls grow into adulthood and navigate the minefield which is the Tudor court. Duty, courage, love and friendship are at the core of this remarkable story. I loved every word and believe it is a must read for both historical fiction fans and Tudor devotees.
I received a complimentary copy of this book as a participant in a book tour.
January 21, 2021
My Thoughts:
Several reasons I love this story.
1. It is a continuation of the close bond and friendship between Catalina and María from the first book, The Duty of Daughters.
2. I love the opening paragraph. It is rich in descriptive detail that sets the tone for the story.
3. All Manner of Things shows that during this era women had little control of their lives. Their marriages were often arranged. Rare did a couple marry for love.
4. All Manner of Things is a woman’s story. I am deeply effected by their suffering during pregnancies and labor without modern knowledge and medicine. Their plight during labor may lead to death. Yet, they speak as if that is always a chance, always in their minds that this might happen. The women love men who do not honor or respect them. Yet, the women have no choice but to stay married and accept the hurtful arrangements. In this story, I saw more situations where women helped other women. Whether it was advice in love, marriage, or chastity. The women depended on other women. The men seem to be secondary characters.
5. María de Salinas is the narrator of All Manner of Things. In the first book, Beatriz the Latin teacher is the narrator. Both of these women are intelligent, wise, educated, and savvy. They are passionate but they both hold two key character traits. They are committed to their duty. They have strong restraint.
6. I love the perspective María has of Henry as a boy, youth, man, and king. She is a sharp observer.
Final Thought:
While reading this story I wondered how much of Catalina’s experiences with men shaped her and her role to be Henry VIII’s wife?
Favorite Quote:
“Love makes fools of us all.”
Source: I received a complimentary pdf copy from Poesy Quill Publishing. I am not required to write a positive review.
Several reasons I love this story.
1. It is a continuation of the close bond and friendship between Catalina and María from the first book, The Duty of Daughters.
2. I love the opening paragraph. It is rich in descriptive detail that sets the tone for the story.
3. All Manner of Things shows that during this era women had little control of their lives. Their marriages were often arranged. Rare did a couple marry for love.
4. All Manner of Things is a woman’s story. I am deeply effected by their suffering during pregnancies and labor without modern knowledge and medicine. Their plight during labor may lead to death. Yet, they speak as if that is always a chance, always in their minds that this might happen. The women love men who do not honor or respect them. Yet, the women have no choice but to stay married and accept the hurtful arrangements. In this story, I saw more situations where women helped other women. Whether it was advice in love, marriage, or chastity. The women depended on other women. The men seem to be secondary characters.
5. María de Salinas is the narrator of All Manner of Things. In the first book, Beatriz the Latin teacher is the narrator. Both of these women are intelligent, wise, educated, and savvy. They are passionate but they both hold two key character traits. They are committed to their duty. They have strong restraint.
6. I love the perspective María has of Henry as a boy, youth, man, and king. She is a sharp observer.
Final Thought:
While reading this story I wondered how much of Catalina’s experiences with men shaped her and her role to be Henry VIII’s wife?
Favorite Quote:
“Love makes fools of us all.”
Source: I received a complimentary pdf copy from Poesy Quill Publishing. I am not required to write a positive review.
January 27, 2021
My Review:
Plot in brief: (no spoilers) All Manner of Things is book two in a series. This volume centers on the relationship between Maria de Salinas and Catalina, daughter of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. The story begins as Catalina begins her journey to England to marry Prince Arthur, the heir to the throne. Once in England, we follow her life as she marries, becomes a widow and then marries again, to King Henry VIII.
The Characters: The history of the Tudors is fairly well known, but this book is driven by Maria de Salinas, a cousin/friend/companion to Katherine of Aragon. Both women arrive in England as teenagers. Maria is the younger of the two. Kathrine's story is told by Maria, in heartbreaking detail both through the narrative and a series of letters. But Maria has a story of her own to tell, her own personal feelings of love, loss and friendship.
The History: The story is told with great attention to detail. We are invited to peer through a window into the world of Henry VII and the early Tudor Court and that of King Henry VIII. From freezing cold Ludlow Castle to the glittering Field of the Cloth of Gold, we are treated to a portrait of life for a high born Tudor woman. A life that was not her own, pushed and pulled by the whim of men.
The Writing: Maria's story is told in third person. It's a very deep dive into her feelings with a significant amount of internal thought. The pace is sedate as Maria slowly shares Catherine's story. At 450 pages it was not a quick read. The writing and editing are both excellent.
Overall: I enjoyed learning about Catalina/Katherine and her journey from Spain. I knew something of her life after the death of Prince Arthur but was surprised by the amount of neglect she endured from both her father and King Henry VII. Although, this is book two, I read it as a stand alone without any problem.
Plot in brief: (no spoilers) All Manner of Things is book two in a series. This volume centers on the relationship between Maria de Salinas and Catalina, daughter of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. The story begins as Catalina begins her journey to England to marry Prince Arthur, the heir to the throne. Once in England, we follow her life as she marries, becomes a widow and then marries again, to King Henry VIII.
The Characters: The history of the Tudors is fairly well known, but this book is driven by Maria de Salinas, a cousin/friend/companion to Katherine of Aragon. Both women arrive in England as teenagers. Maria is the younger of the two. Kathrine's story is told by Maria, in heartbreaking detail both through the narrative and a series of letters. But Maria has a story of her own to tell, her own personal feelings of love, loss and friendship.
The History: The story is told with great attention to detail. We are invited to peer through a window into the world of Henry VII and the early Tudor Court and that of King Henry VIII. From freezing cold Ludlow Castle to the glittering Field of the Cloth of Gold, we are treated to a portrait of life for a high born Tudor woman. A life that was not her own, pushed and pulled by the whim of men.
The Writing: Maria's story is told in third person. It's a very deep dive into her feelings with a significant amount of internal thought. The pace is sedate as Maria slowly shares Catherine's story. At 450 pages it was not a quick read. The writing and editing are both excellent.
Overall: I enjoyed learning about Catalina/Katherine and her journey from Spain. I knew something of her life after the death of Prince Arthur but was surprised by the amount of neglect she endured from both her father and King Henry VII. Although, this is book two, I read it as a stand alone without any problem.
February 4, 2021
Wendy J. Dunn, this book is the second of a two book series as Falling Pomergranate Seeds,Duty of Daughters is the first book,it's about Queen Isabel and King Ferinand of Spain and their daughter Catalina,the relationship between mother and daughter and preparing her for the role of Queen of England when she is to marry into the Tudor family. This book here is about her life in England and her faithful lady in waiting and friend,their relationship as Maria de Salinas recounts her life in England as she pays dying writing to her daughter explaining to her the decisions she made to stay. Follow a relationship of love, betrayal, hatred and then forgiveness of these two women's lives. See what it's like from a different perspective of what royal life was like with the Tudors and the secrets that were kept and life with her friend and Queen while she was married to Henry the VIII. Found this story different because I never read and known the life of others through the eyes of Maria who was just a lady in waiting. Grab tissues,you will need them as you live and learn the license and friendship of these two women. You can see that very much search went into this historical fictional story.Very emotional story and I dare say that Wendy Dunn out did herself in this series and it's a very much read but if you don't read the first book,that's ok cause it catches you up for when these two were young and living in Spain before their trip and travels to England.Received from Net Gallery and if your into these kind of history and books you really don't want to miss this story!
January 18, 2021
Disclaimer: I received a free copy from Netgalley; the below review is my own opinion.
Dunn takes us through most of Catalina of Aragon's life in England through the eyes of her devoted lady-in-waiting, María de Salinas. Maria makes for a great observer - she shows the reader events in England with a realistic amount of access to both the court and the wider world; she hears reports from Europe, and she is right there in the room when a lot of major players walk through.
We see Margaret Beaufort and Elizabeth of York and Henry VII and, of course, Henry VIII. Maria has doubts from the very beginning about Prince Henry, and Dunn suggests that Henry was foul right from the start, rather than any long progression of corruption.
The time between Catalina's two marriages is handled well, considering some writers will just say "and 7 years passed", to hurry up to "the good stuff" but Dunn does a good job showing the politics and in-fighting Catalina's little court went through inside the larger Tudor court. Dunn perhaps goes a little overboard on details and events here, but it is about showing how time dragged at this point.
Interestingly, Maria is an honest enough observer to see that Catalina is hurting herself by being too stubborn in her decisions, and too blind to how the men around her hurt her.
Dunn shows how much people's hands are tied by those in power, and does a good job showing us the early Tudor court and all the people running around it.
January 9, 2021
Wendy Dunn's Tudor era novels offer more than courtly romance, glitter and pageantry. Behind the jostle for status and power, the blanks in history become inhabited by characters who pulse, breathe and shiver, exposing through their interactions entrenched structures of female dependence and dis-empowerment.
All Manner of Things, is a deathbed letter from Maria de Salinas to her daughter Katherine, Duchess of Suffolk. The narrative recounts Maria’s life as kinswoman and intimate of Katherine of Aragon, first wife of Henry VIII. Having aspired to marry for love herself, the narrative becomes a rationalization of decisions made by Maria in respect to her daughter that effectively deny her comparable opportunity for marital choice.
To the extent that those decisions uphold the status quo and lead to estrangement of mother and daughter, the novel must be viewed as questioning the mechanisms whereby prevailing social mores, masculine power and trickery, ensure the instrumental complicity of women in their own servitude.
The contribution of All Manner of Things to a progressive unveiling of issues of complexity in women’s lives across the course of the Tudor novels suggests evolutionary possibilities for Dunn's future works.
All Manner of Things, is a deathbed letter from Maria de Salinas to her daughter Katherine, Duchess of Suffolk. The narrative recounts Maria’s life as kinswoman and intimate of Katherine of Aragon, first wife of Henry VIII. Having aspired to marry for love herself, the narrative becomes a rationalization of decisions made by Maria in respect to her daughter that effectively deny her comparable opportunity for marital choice.
To the extent that those decisions uphold the status quo and lead to estrangement of mother and daughter, the novel must be viewed as questioning the mechanisms whereby prevailing social mores, masculine power and trickery, ensure the instrumental complicity of women in their own servitude.
The contribution of All Manner of Things to a progressive unveiling of issues of complexity in women’s lives across the course of the Tudor novels suggests evolutionary possibilities for Dunn's future works.
January 15, 2021
Falling Pomegranate Seeds: All Manner of Things by Wendy J. Dunn
Wendy J. Dunn is a brilliant author of historical fiction, dealing with Tudor times and, I have to say her knowledge of the period and the ins and outs of Henry VIII and his marriages, is encyclopaedic. In her latest novel, Falling Pomegranate Seeds: All Manner of Things, it is 1539 and Maria de Salinas is dying. Too ill to travel, she writes to her daughter, Katherine, Duchess of Suffolk telling of her life which has been intertwined with her friend and cousin, Catalina of Aragon (Henry's first wife, Queen Katherine of Aragon).
This is a brilliant novel, it makes the historic figures involved, human. As I said the author's knowledge of the period is encyclopaedic but this doesn't mean that the book is a dry history book. I thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend it. This is book two in her series about Katherine of Aragon, it is preceded by Falling Pomegranate Seeds: The Duty of Daughters and you would be doing yourself a huge favour to read both books. However, if that is not possible for some reason, you can read book two without having read the first one without losing enjoyment.
Wendy J. Dunn is a brilliant author of historical fiction, dealing with Tudor times and, I have to say her knowledge of the period and the ins and outs of Henry VIII and his marriages, is encyclopaedic. In her latest novel, Falling Pomegranate Seeds: All Manner of Things, it is 1539 and Maria de Salinas is dying. Too ill to travel, she writes to her daughter, Katherine, Duchess of Suffolk telling of her life which has been intertwined with her friend and cousin, Catalina of Aragon (Henry's first wife, Queen Katherine of Aragon).
This is a brilliant novel, it makes the historic figures involved, human. As I said the author's knowledge of the period is encyclopaedic but this doesn't mean that the book is a dry history book. I thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend it. This is book two in her series about Katherine of Aragon, it is preceded by Falling Pomegranate Seeds: The Duty of Daughters and you would be doing yourself a huge favour to read both books. However, if that is not possible for some reason, you can read book two without having read the first one without losing enjoyment.
January 14, 2021
All Manner of Things, the final installment of Wendy Dunn’s Falling Pomegranate series is a very intimate and moving portrayal of the story of Catherine of Aragon told by her most trusted servant Maria de Salinas. With Dunn’s beautiful imagery you will journey from the Golden sunshine deserts of Spain and take you to the rolling green hills and valleys of Tudor England. But, beneath those beautiful skies hides intrigue, scandal, broken hearts, and two young girls who will have to navigate the treacherous waters of the Tudor court. This book is a MUST for all Tudor fans, both expert and novice. It is an enjoyable read that I couldn’t put down!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews