Mademoiselle Boleyn

October 8, 2007
The author of The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn
and The Queen's Bastard
returns with a look at the future queen of England before Henry VIII comes into her life. When Anne is nine, her father is sent to France by Henry to conduct state affairs, and brings the family. Beautiful, intelligent and learned, Anne gains the favor of France's kind Queen Claude as well as of the brilliant Marguerite of Savoy, the bright but lecherous Francois I and even Leonardo da Vinci, all before she turns 17. But Anne and her siblings are put upon by her cold and cruel father, Thomas Boleyn, to do whatever he may order to further his interests and those of England. Maxwell's Anne witnesses the devastating effect upon her sister, Mary, and determines to find her own destiny—certainly a rarity in the era. The budding romance between Anne and her paramour Percy is feelingly described, and all the more poignant when one knows the outcome. Maxwell delivers a ripping piece of historical romance.