SIX QUEENS: The Wives of Henry VIII

Somehow, the author has managed to get through Henry's 3 Kates, 2 Annes, and 1 Jane without suggesting the darker emotions of the place and period. The noxious intrigues of his Court are here reduced to tittle-tattle; his lust is rendered as a wandering eye with hardly a hint of a leer in it. The beheadings lose their tragedy-- automatic as a movie star's divorces. That Henry was a powerful, selfish man with a huge talent for statecraft, is what is concentrated on. That it was his direction and foresight which supplied a groundwork to the tremendous growth and prosperity of the Elizabethan era is even well done. But the supplied dialogue does not enhance the history, the queens remain pallid and the wild contrasts of their lives with Henry are barely explored. Henry and the girls are worth waiting for and adult readers have much to choose from.