The king's pleasure

the long version

Anne Boleyn's story -- and defense -- told with the same warmth and human qualities as the author's previous, *Beyond The Blue Mountains*, and backdropped with the many political moves that marked her short career. Here is her wit, her courage, her power, as she wins the King and holds him until she produces no son, as she loses him to Jane Seymour and undergoes the tragedy of her predecessor, Katharine of Aragon. Here too the plot against her, promoted by Cromwell, abetted by her sister-in-law, which has its sad ending when Anne is beheaded. Historical novelization that is ably told, carefully mounted, this offers a satisfying portrait of its main, and minor, characters, that makes believable the life of the period and the forces that made possible Henry's break with Rome, his ability to use and control his court, his career as a 'royal murderer'. Good supplementary reading to accompany Maxwell Anderson's *Anne of the Thousand Days*. [from Kirkusreviews.com]