Blurb Bor into an improvished branch of the nobel Howard family, young Katherine is plucked from her home to live with her grandmother, the Duchess of Norfolk. The innocent girl quickly learns that her grandmother's puritanism is not shared by Katherine's free-spirated cousins, with whom she lives. Beauitful and impressionable, Katherine becomes involved in two ill-fated love affairs before her sixteenth birthday. Like her cousin Anne Boleyn, she leaves her grandmother's home to become a lady-in-Waiting at the court of Henry VIII. The royal palaces are exciting to a young gril from the country, and Katherine finds that her duties there allow her to be near her handsom cousin, Thomas Culpepper, who she has loved since childhood.
But when katherine catches the eye of the aging and unhappily married king, she is forced to abandon her plans for a lifew ith Thomas and marry King Henry. Overwhelemed by the changes in her fortunes, bewildered and flattered by the adoration of her husband, Katherine is dazzled by the royal life. But her bliss is short-lived as rumours of her wayward past come back to haunt her, and Katherine's destiny takes another, deadly, turn.
The Review
As one of the few books I have read about Katherine Howard it was enjoyable to read and Plaidy has spun a fascinating tale that keeps you captivated through the 278 pages of the book. Well written it captivates the turmoil Katherine must have been going through as well as the elation and the fear.
While I do not know much on Katherine Howard as I do some of the other Queens of Henry VIII Plaidy shows us a plausible characterisation of Katherine as well as the events in her life. It explores how the Howard family is vying for a position in the court even after the disaster with her cousin Anne Boleyn and what extents they will go to, to secure their position in the world.
With a very formal tone it isn't one of the trashy relaxing books that you may find in bookstores today but a true novel that has the ability to become a classic over time, as Plaidy is a well renknowned author who writes in a way that sticks with you long after you finished the book.
I have to say this is one the better books I have read in a long tiem and is well worth reading. My only complaint? I would have loved for it to be longer.