The Other Boleyn Girl - Phillipa Gregory

So when I was at Hampton Court I caught sight of a topical book which looked like a good yarn. Here’s my review of it. Written from my luxury bedroom at the Randolph, Oxford.

(as you can see its a terrible strain!)

‘The Other Boleyn Girl’ is the first in a series of novels by Gregory set at the Tudor Court in England. If your English history is a little rusty the Tudors were the English monarchical family between 1485 and 1603. My interest in this period of English history has taken some time to develop, starting with context for Shakespeare, via television series The Tudors and recently visiting Hampton Court Palace.

The ‘Other Boleyn Girl’ is Mary Boleyn, sister of Henry VIII’s second wife, Anne Boleyn (mother of Queen Elizabeth I of England). The book follows the rise and fall of the popularity of the Boleyn family at Henry VIII’s court. It reminded me of some Jane Austen I’d read in that the story doesn’t travel very far; the story focuses on the social relationships at one court, albeit across 15 years. I enjoyed the novel approach of taking a well-known story from a different angle, especially one that lets us look on Anne with sympathy. I think our inherent monarchical stance in Britain has made us quite defensive of the king. Gregory’s talent is in furnishing well-known figures with human characters, with probable dialogue. When Henry has an accident on the tennis court, Gregory describes his thought, ‘torn between the intense pain of his broken foot and the ludicrous thought that the Boleyns had attempted to assassinate him with tennis’. Henry VIII depicted with humour and yet pointing to a deeper theme; throughout the book the Boleyn triumvirate (Anne, Mary and George) are embroiled in a battle at court whilst appearing dedicated courtiers and courtesans.

Taking the perspective of a woman in a patriarchal age was an interesting angle for Gregory to portray. There are frequent references to the role and powers of women in the novel. When watching Jane Seymour skate across ice Mary reflects, ‘to be a Seymour girl must be very like being a Boleyn girl, when your father and your brother thrust you towards the king and you have neither  the ability nor the wisdom  to run away’. Women in the novel have all the power and yet none of it. This is a woman’s book told from a woman’s perspective. It is about romance and laughter but simultaneously questions whether these are big enough things to live for.  It did get me thinking about what I wear and why, whose styles I follow consciously or otherwise.

I learnt a lot about the Tudor court whilst reading the book, even just remembering the need for itinerancy with such an opulent court.  It is obvious that Gregory has done copious amounts of research to ensure her book is faithful to historical events but this desire to be accurate can at times be exhausting, as if Gregory needs to show us how much research she has done. This reminded me a little of Wolf Hall (Hilary Mantel) another recent work on Tudor England, although unlike WH, TOBG only concerned itself with romance and not all of politics and religion too.

The book was slow at times and I my mind did wonder, as with Austen, is there going to be anything more to this than romance and giggling. The book itself, however, has been turned into a film starring Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson, and my little favourite Jim Sturgess. I have to say I haven’t seen the film yet but I think I will try to now. For a commuting companion on the slow trains of Germany Gregory kept me entertained.

7/10