Anne of Cleves

There can be virtually no aspect of Henry VIII’s life and reign, as Steven Veerapen puts it, that has not been ‘scrutinised under every available lens’. There have, of course, been any number of histories and biographies of Henry himself, and as many again of his wives and ministers to go alongside the films, plays and novels that, from Shakespeare to Hilary Mantel and (best of the lot) C.J. Sansom, show no signs of drying up. So ‘why bother writing about Henry VIII?’ Veerapen asks – and he’ll not be the only one wondering that. He is happy to concede that this is probably an exhausted seam from a narrowly English perspective, but what of other perspectives? What of Henry’s immediate neighbours, targets of the imperial pretensions suggested by this book’s title?

Divorced. Beheaded. Died. Divorced. Beheaded. Survived. Nearly 500 years after the death of Henry VIII, can there be anything new to say about his queens: Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Katherine Howard and Katherine Parr? Does the world need another book about this sextet? The answer to both questions, as this elegantly written and sumptuously illustrated volume makes clear, is a resounding yes. Published to coincide with the National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition of the same name (20 June-8 September), Six Lives is a collection of concise, accessible essays written by experts with specialist knowledge of Tudor painting, music, jewellery, manuscript illumination and book binding, among other topics.