Selected Historical Novels

British history comes to vivid life in these three novels of royal love and intrigue by an international bestselling author.  Victoria and Albert: Drawn from Queen Victoria’s diaries and correspondences, Evelyn Anthony’s novel reimagines the story of how a sheltered eighteen-year-old girl ascended to the British throne, became a major force in politics, and fell in love with her cousin, Prince Albert. Spanning the first twenty-one years of her reign, Victoria and Albert is an unforgettable love story and “a sympathetic picture of a marriage which makes its royalty human in their frailties and their strengths” (Kirkus Reviews).  Anne Boleyn: Sixteenth-century history comes thrillingly alive as King Henry VIII courts Anne Boleyn, who will settle for nothing less than the crown of England—even if Henry has to break with Rome in order to marry her. Anthony’s sweeping novel features a teeming canvas of iconic real-life characters: Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, the enemy Anne vows to destroy; Henry’s first wife, the proud and pious Queen Catherine of Aragon; and Thomas Cromwell, who engineers Anne’s downfall. From the halcyon early days of courtship to her imprisonment in the palace tower for treason, this is a “solid and vigorous story” of love, ambition, and the tragic destiny of Anne of the Thousand Days (The New York Times).  Elizabeth: The sickly Catholic fanatic Mary Tudor has reigned for six years when her half-sister Elizabeth ascends to the throne. After enduring years of exile following the execution of her mother, Anne Boleyn, the twenty-five-year-old Elizabeth inherits a realm divided by religious turmoil and financial collapse. Focusing on the first three decades of Elizabeth I’s reign, Anthony chronicles the monarch’s long battle with her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots, for the throne, and the Virgin Queen’s relationship with the Earl of Leicester.