Read This!: The Tudors

By G. J. Meyer


I have a thing for historical fiction and one of the eras that I gravitate to is Tudor England. This all started when I read The Other Boleyn Girl, one of my favorite books. Highly recommend. I am also a big fan of the naughty Showtime series The Tudors. So, when Mr. saw this book, he thought I would like it and bought for me as a surprise. Coincidentally, I had been reading about it online and was telling Mr. that I was thinking of buying it. He internally freaked for a second because we have a history of him buying me presents and me buying said gift for myself before he has a chance to give it to me. Hee hee hee. I did not buy it so all was good. Also, in a fun twist, my Dad saw this book and thought it would be interesting and bought it for himself. My Dad reads about two books a year. In fact, when he read John Adams, he said he felt like he was reading it in real time because it was taking so long. Anyways, because of his slow reading and my fast reading, we ended up reading it at the same time.

When I initially started this book, I was slightly hesitant because the author is a man. I don’t tend to read a lot of books by men because I find their writing to be overly detailed with stuff that no one cares about (like politics or social commentary). I find that women tend to get into the more juicy details and thus write better books. This is also why I prefer biographies of women over men. Men are blah blah blah war blah blah blah policy. Ick. Women are more like fashion, lovers, and intrigue. So if you take a non-fiction history book written by a man that is like an explosion of exactly what I prefer not to read. But, I decided to read it anyways.

The book discusses the Tudor reigns of Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth. Each chapter which focuses on more the chronological history is followed by a chapter about cultural happenings like how the schools worked and the evolution of the British theater. I found these to be more interesting.

There is a lot of focus on religion for obvious reasons and I would say the religious changes going through Britain, started not because of any issue with Catholicism but just so that Henry VIII could do what he wanted and get a divorce, are the main theme. There is some talk of wars and other such business but it is less comparatively. I am not sure if religion was just this high of a focus within these reigns or if that was just the angle of the author.

It was interesting that the picture the author drew of the monarchs was not the glorious merry old England persona that has been popularized but more like selfish, brutal megalomaniacs. Throughout this book I kept thinking, if this is what life was like for those who didn’t believe in the religion currently en vogue with the monarchy, no wonder the pilgrims left. I would have too.

All in all, this was decent for a non-fiction history book written by a man. It went quickly, had no minutiae saturation, and had a lot of fun facts and points of interest. If you are into history, I would recommend.

Oh and my Dad liked it too.