Tracy Borman

An examination behind the public faces of the Tudor monarchs draws on material from their most intimate courtiers to illuminate details about their private worlds, from what they ate and the clothes they wore to how they were treated while sick.

Henrietta Howard, later Countess of Suffolk, was the long-term mistress and confidante of King George II. This book provides an insight into the dynamics of the Georgian court, and reveals a woman who was far more than the mistress to the King: a dedicated patron of the arts; and, a lively and talented intellectual in her own right.

This new edition of Lucy Wooding's Henry VIII is fully revised and updated to provide an insightful and original portrait of one of England's most unforgettable monarchs and the many paradoxes of his character and reign. Henry was a Renaissance prince whose Court dazzled with artistic display, yet he was also a savage adversary, who ruthlessly crushed all those who opposed him. Five centuries after his reign, he continues to fascinate, always evading easy characterization. Wooding locates Henry VIII firmly in the context of the English Renaissance and the fierce currents of religious change that characterized the early Reformation, as well as exploring the historiographical debates that have surrounded him and his reign. This new edition takes into account significant advances in recent research, particularly following the five hundredth anniversary of his accession in 2009, to put forward a distinctive interpretation of Henry's personality and remarkable style of kingship. It gives a fresh portrayal of Henry VIII, cutting away the misleading mythology that surrounds him in order to provide a vivid account of this passionate, wilful, intelligent and destructive king.

"During the Third Crusade, deaths from fever and starvation are common, but King Richard the Lionheart has a secret ally against these impassable enemies--a mysterious healer by the name of Edythe. Of all the women in Richard's life, she is the least known...and perhaps the most powerful. Sent to Richard by his mother, Eleanor, Edythe is first thought to be a spy. She does have her fair share of secrets...owing not only her station in Richard's camp, but her very life, to the enigmatic Queen Mother. But when Edythe's medical knowledge saves Richard from a grave illness, she becomes an indispensable member of his camp--even as his loyal soldiers, suspicious of her talent for warding off death, call her witch.."--

But my father, my beloved and most wretched father ... would he never overcome the fierce passion that now held pitiless dominion over him? With its shocking themes of father-daughter incest, Mary Shelley's publisher--her father, known for his own subversive books--not only refused to publish Mathilda, he refused to return her only copy of the manuscript, and the work was never published in her lifetime. His suppression of this passionate novella is perhaps understandable--unlike her first book, Frankenstein, written a year earlier, Mathilda uses fantasy to study a far more personal reality. It tells the story of a young woman whose mother died in her childbirth--just as Shelly's own mother died after hers--and whose relationship with her bereaved father becomes sexually charged as he conflates her with his lost wife, while she becomes involved with a handsome poet. Yet despite characters clearly based on herself, her father, and her husband, the narrator's emotional and relentlessly self-examining voice lifts the story beyond autobiographical resonance into something more transcendent: a driven tale of a brave woman's search for love, atonement, and redemption.

Anne Boleyn may be best known for losing her head, but as Tudor expert Tracy Borman reveals in a book that recasts British history, her greatest legacy lies in the path-breaking reign of her daughter, Elizabeth Much of the fascination with Britain’s legendary Tudors centers around the dramas surrounding Henry VIII and his six wives and Elizabeth I’s rumored liaisons. Yet the most fascinating relationship in that historic era may well be that between the mother and daughter who, individually and collectively, changed the course of British history. The future Queen Elizabeth was not yet three when her mother, Anne Boleyn, was beheaded on May 19, 1536, on Henry’s order, incensed that she had not given him a son and tired of her contentious nature. Elizabeth had been raised away from court, rarely even seeing Anne; and after her death, Henry tried in every way to erase Anne’s presence and memory. At that moment in history, few could have predicted that mother and daughter would each leave enduring, and interlocked, legacies. Yet as Tracy Borman reveals in this first-ever joint portrait, both women broke the mold for British queens and for women in general at the time. Anne was instrumental in reforming and reshaping forever Britain’s religious traditions, and her years of wielding power over a male-dominated court provided an inspiring role model for Elizabeth’s glittering, groundbreaking 45-year reign. Indeed, Borman shows how much Elizabeth—most visibly by refusing to ever marry, but in many other more subtle ways that defined her court—was influenced by her mother’s legacy. In its originality, Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I sheds new light on two of history’s most famous women—the private desires, hopes, and fears that lay behind their dazzling public personas, and the surprising influence each had on the other during and after their lifetimes. In the process, Tracy Borman reframes our understanding of the entire Tudor era.

He thought he'd never find heaven again . . . until he met her.Matthew Gallow is a fallen angel, cast out of heaven for daring to disbelieve. Furious, frustrated, and empty, he roams the earth, pretending to cast out demons and preserve souls. He doesn't have faith in anything — or anyone — until the night he nearly dies fighting a true fiend. His whole world is shaken. And when he meets Natalia, he isn't sure if he can trust her...or the attraction he feels for her.Natalia works for Cain, a rocker living on the edge, and she invites Matthew to be a part of his wild stage show. It's perfect — an exorcism for a man who says he's sold his soul to the devil. Only Cain really is in league with Lucifer, and all mankind is at risk. Matthew never before cared whether or not the world went to hell. But as his passion for Natalia grows, he'll fight to the death to rescue her from evil's grasp...and realize that love is the one thing that can save a fallen angel.

Tracy Borman lays out Matilda's remarkable story against one of the most fascinating and transformative periods in European history. Stirring, richly detailed, and wholly involving, Queen of the Conqueror reveals not just an extraordinary figure but an iconic woman who shaped generations, and an era that cast the essential framework for the world we know today.

This book takes an informative and entertaining look at royal weddings through English history.

Reviled as a Machiavellian schemer who stopped at nothing in his quest for power, Thomas Cromwell was also a loving husband, father and guardian, a witty and generous host, and a loyal and devoted servant. With new insights into Cromwell's character, his family life and his close relationships with both Cardinal Wolsey and Henry VIII, Tracy Borman, joint Chief Curator of Historic Royal Palaces, examines the life, loves and legacy of the man who changed the shape of England forever.