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If we've whetted your appetite for more information, here's our personal selection of books to help you take your interest further. Many people have written about the period and it can be difficult to know where to begin. We included general surveys of the period, biography, popular history, and a few of the lighter specialist studies, so there should be plenty to keep you occupied. Happy Reading! |
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| Short descriptions of the books appear in bright blue. Easy-to-read books are marked with *. We kept our opinions in navy so you can ignore them if you don't agree! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
GENERAL HISTORIES OF TUDOR BRITAIN BIOGRAPHY HISTORICAL BACKGROUND, SOCIAL HISTORY AND DAILY LIFE |
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| GENERAL HISTORIES OF
TUDOR BRITAIN |
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| *A Brief History of The
Tudor Age (Formerly published as 'The Tudor Age') Jasper Ridley, Constable and Robinson, 2002 An easy-to-read popular history of the Tudor era. If you never enjoyed history before now, and you like your books simple but informative, then this is the place to start. It eases you in with short but full doses of information, without boring you silly. It has a short introduction to the reigns of the Tudor monarchs and the politics of the period, but there are additional chapters on themes from farming to fashion which are more related to daily life, so you get a better sense of how people lived in the sixteenth century. Perhaps it's not exactly the most accurate work in the world, but it will give you a good understanding of the times without force-feeding you dull facts and figures. |
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| England Under The Tudors G. R. Elton, Routledge, 1991 A full-length introduction to the period and still a standard textbook. This book was first published in 1955, and despite modern revision, it is showing its age. Even so, it remains in print because it is still one of the most accessible academic surveys available. Very well-written, though the style is a little old-fashioned for some, but we quite liked that! |
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| Tudor England John Guy, Oxford University Press, 1988, 1990 A comprehensive survey of the period. Readable, but in more scholarly style. Definitely worth persevering with if you find it a little difficult initially. Try keeping it by your bed or taking it on the train. You'll be surprised how quickly you get into it. |
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| Court, Kirk and
Community: Scotland, 1470-1625 J. Wormauld, London, 1981 The standard textbook on Scotland during the Tudor period. |
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| Tudor Ireland: Crown,
Community and the Conflict of Cultures, 1470-1603 S. G. Ellis, London, 1985 The standard textbook on Ireland under the Tudors. This and the book above aren't particularly easy-to-read if you're not used to reading more in-depth history, but they're still the best surveys available on Scotland and Ireland. |
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BIOGRAPHY |
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| Henry VII S. B. Chrimes, London, 1972 An academic biography. The biographical side is lacking, but still a useful account of the reign. |
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| *Henry VIII - The King
and His Court Alison Weir, Jonathan Cape 2001 A fairly reliable 'popular' biography of Henry VIII and the court around him. Easy-to-read and crammed with information. A triple-decker sandwich of early Tudor life! Here at Tudorlinks.com we don't always see eye-to-eye with AW, but she's really done herself proud with this one. We'd already read several of the sources she's used, but it's still like several of our favourites, biography, history, social history, art and architecture, all rolled into one yummy whole. She also came up with a couple of theories some people have found controversial - not Warnicke controversial, but interesting nevertheless - but we have to say it does seem very plausible (cue gasps of horror!). Thankfully, she's included notes in this book, and this time we've got so little to whinge about, we were wondering what to do with all the free time. I know, let's read it again from the beginning.... |
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| Henry VIII J. J. Scarisbrook, Eyre and Spottiswood, 1968 The classic biography and one of the best. Although advances in research in the intervening years have made some of this a little out-dated, this is still one of the best scholarly biographies available. |
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| *The Six Wives of Henry
VIII Alison Weir, The Bodley Head, London, 1991 A fairly reliable popular history of the lives of Henry's wives. Thorough but readable. On a personal note we find the lack of notes in this and other books by AW a little annoying. She sometimes makes slightly strange claims, and without notes it's nearly impossible to discover the source of information, without trawling through every last word of every last book listed in the 37-page bibliographical essay. This means it's sometimes difficult to tell if she's stating a fact which is supported by evidence, or just a personal opinion. (There's a reference in Lancaster and York to Queen Margaret's 'curiously forked teeth' which sends the mind reeling. Does she mean the roots of the teeth, I wonder? Any thoughts anyone?) |
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| *The Six Wives of Henry
VIII Antonia Fraser, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1992 Less reliable than the above, but still a good read and a relatively unbiassed account. In fact, we'd say Antonia Fraser was noticeably the better writer of the two, though perhaps she is not as thorough a biographer as Alison Weir. This book may be slightly less accurate, but the writing flows beautifully so the style is far more enjoyable to read. And the paper quality in this edition is nicer, too, which just settles it! |
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| *Children of England
(Also published as 'The Children of Henry VIII') Alison Weir, Jonathan Cape, 1996 An enjoyable popular biography of Henry's three surviving children, and his great-neice Jane Grey. The subtitle The Heirs of King Henry VIII 1547-1558 neatly describes the contents. We've noted some silly mistakes, but it's still an engrossing read. |
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| *Mary I Rosalind K Marshall, HMSO, 1991 A short but accessible biography. |
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| Mary Tudor: A Life David Loades, Basil Blackwell, 1989 An academic biography by a leading expert on the Tudor period. |
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| *Elizabeth I Rosalind K Marshall, HMSO, 1993 Another short but accessible biography. |
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| Elizabeth I J E Neale, Jonathan Cape, 1934 A classic if out-dated scholarly biography. TOk, so there are plenty of newer, better biographies of Elizabeth I out there, but we know you'll find the one to suit you if you're interested, so we thought we'd put in a good word for this old favourite. |
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HISTORICAL BACKGROUND, SOCIAL HISTORY AND DAILY LIFE |
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| *Life in Tudor England Penry Williams, London, 1964 Life in Tudor England. Self-explanatory, really. |
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| The English Reformation A. G. Dickens, London, 1989 Academic work focussing on the 'religious revolution' in England. This second edition brought the 1964 original up-to-date, more or less. |
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| Trade, Plunder and
Settlement: Maritime Enterprise and the Genesis of the
British Empire K. R. Andrews, Cambridge, 1984 Scholarly study of early trade and exploration. Not the easiest book to read if you're not into the subject, but good when you get into it. |
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| *The Elizabethan World
Picture E. M. W. Tillyard, London, 1943 An old but strangely charming book. Recently republished in small, light, cheap paperback edition. If that's not a hint, we don't know what is! |
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| *The Tudor Housewife Alison Sim, Sutton Publishing, Useful and very accessible. If you only read one book about women in Tudor England, this should be it. Almost every sixteenth century girl, rich or poor, was taught how to run a household. This book describes how they did it, together with other aspects of women's lives. As with all AS's books it has its faults, but it's still enjoyable. |
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