Emily Paull

Katherine of Aragon- The True Queen (Six Tudor Queens Book 1) Alison Weir Headline Publishing, 2016  (I own a copy, courtesy the publisher) Ever since I read Philippa Gregory's novel The Constant Princess , Katherine of Aragon has been one of my most admired historical figures.  We all know some parts of the story of Henry the Eighth and his ill-fated six wives: divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived.  But what we also know is that there are a lot of rumours about the time period which make for really interesting but really inaccurate dramas.  If anyone has ever seen The Tudors , that would be my case in point. Tudor England was not just a haven of licentiousness and intrigue.  It was a highly political time, and also a time when religious belief was much more fervent than it is today.  Katherine of Aragon was sent to England to marry Arthur, Prince of Wales, who was the oldest son of the first Tudor King, Henry the VII and Queen El...

I don't know what it was about August, but almost everyone I spoke to was busy, busy, busy.  August saw me spending one entire weekend escaping into book after book to get away from all the stress of uni and work and everything in between.  Without any further ado, here is what I read in August. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by Jack Thorne, John Tiffany and JK Rowling A lot has been said about the new 'Harry Potter' book, which isn't a book at all but a rehearsal edition of the script for the new play currently on in the UK.  There are a few problems with the play, but this came into my life at exactly the right time.  A lot of things were changing and I felt unstable-- it was just the ticket to be able to escape back into the familiar world of Harry Potter, even if some things were just a little bit off. The Muse by Jessie Burton I loved The Miniaturist , which came out a few years ago and told the story of an enchanted doll's house in Amsterdam...