Rating: 5 Stars
Published: September 30, 2025
Pages: 496
Genre: Historical Fiction
Buy: Amazon.com
This is one of my most anticipated reads for this year and I can say for a fact that my favorite historical fiction author, Philippa Gregory did not disappoint with this one. After so many years, she has brought us back into the Tudor court, one of the most intriguing times in English history in my opinion.
This time, the story is told from the eyes of Lady Rochford, sister-in-law to Anne Boleyn and lady-in-waiting to four of King Henry’s queens. While history has most often depicted this woman down as a traitor who betrayed her sister-in-law and husband, sending them to the scaffold, this story humanizes Jane in a way that makes more sense than most historical accounts. It also brought to life the real realities of the life in Henry’s court and how survival was important especially for a woman like Jane Rochford.
Philippa Gregory is such a talented storyteller and reading this book made me understand why I have over 20 books by her. This story was so well written as it was captivating from start to finish and the descriptions vivid which made me feel like I was right there in court with all the characters. While other historical accounts of Lady Rochford painted her as a villain, this story brought another more acceptable perspective in my opinion. It humanized her and considering her history from being taken to court at the very young age of 11 years to serve the crown, she had to learn to take care of herself and protect her interests especially with a husband like Sir Rochford and her parents who were distant from her. In her circumstances, I admired her courage to survive albeit adopting strategies that were unconventional in many ways but then Henry’s court was an unconventional one for who marries wives and kills them or sets them aside because he has changed his mind in a whim. It also gives a good account of Henry’s reign as king between the times he was married to Anne Boleyn and his three wives after her and if someone is interested in reading about this time in history, this would be a good place to start.
Another major thing this story did for me was to ignite my interest in Thomas Cromwell, Henry’s master counselor. I had read ‘Wolf Hall’ by Hilary mantel a couple of years ago which was an outstanding read and then moved on to the second book, ‘Bring up the Bodies’, which I abandoned after a few pages but as I was reading this book, I was so eager to read more about Thomas Cromwell and knew I had to go back to read the ‘Bring up the Bodies’, as it made more sense to me now. So, as I finished reading this book, I have swallowed it up and would be reading the third book in the trilogy, ‘The Mirror and the Light’.
If you love historical fiction and particularly English history, I highly recommend this book. You will enjoy everything about it. The drama, the conspiracy, the tension, etc. Go get yourself a copy.
Also available in audiobook format on Audible.
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The Author:
Philippa Gregory is one of the world’s foremost historical novelists. She wrote her first ever novel, Wideacre, when she was completing her PhD in eighteenth-century literature and it sold worldwide, heralding a new era for historical fiction. Her flair for blending history and imagination developed into a signature style and Philippa went on to write many bestselling novels, including The Other Boleyn Girl and The White Queen.
Now a recognised authority on women’s history, Philippa graduated from the University of Sussex and received a PhD from the University of Edinburgh, where she is a Regent and was made Alumna of the Year in 2009. She holds honorary degrees from Teesside University and the University of Sussex. She is a fellow of the Universities of Sussex and Cardiff and an honorary research fellow at Birkbeck University of London. In 2020 she was made a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for her services to literature and charity.
Philippa is a member of the Society of Authors and in 2016, was presented with the Outstanding Contribution to Historical Fiction Award by the Historical Writers’ Association. In 2018, she was awarded an Honorary Platinum Award by Nielsen for achieving significant lifetime sales across her entire book output.
For many years, her other great interest was the charity that she founded nearly twenty years ago: Gardens for The Gambia. She raised funds and paid for almost 200 wells in the primary schools of this very dry and poor African country, and thousands of school children have been able to learn market gardening and grow food to eat in the school gardens watered by the wells. The charity also provided wells for women’s collective gardens and for The Gambia’s only agricultural college, at Njawara. During the Covid-19 pandemic, it suspended well digging and focused on funding washing/disinfectant programmes and providing materials help community.
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