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Book Paints Terrific Portrait of Henry VIII

© Robert Powers

If you’ve been fascinated with the story of King Henry VIII, there’s a new book that will answer every question you might pose, and correct a number of errors made in earlier books.

Alison Weir, who wrote the warmly received The Life of Elizabeth I, shows that she’s a tireless researcher and can write to attract a mass audience. But having Henry VIII as a subject matter would cause many history buffs to leap at the opportunity to write about the fascinating life of one of England’s most delicious personalities.

The book is Henry VIII: The King and His Court (Ballantine Books, $28). At 632 pages, including notes, Weir’s book paints a wide-ranging portrait of a man who one was of the great figures of the Renaissance. As Weir writes early in the book, “Henry VIII’s popularity did not wane with time, and it survived his reforms and his cruelties: his subjects generally revered him as a great king who had England’s interests at heart.”

Weir points out that Henry in his last years of life had a reputation for cruelty, but she says that by no means did he execute 70,000 people. But, she observes, “he did not scruple to remove--often by savage means--those who opposed him.”

Weir describes the king’s residences and the problems that arose in attempts to keep them clean. The book goes into detail about the constant fight to keep the King’s homes free of worry. It was especially difficult because the people of Henry’s time were not aware of germs.

Henry succeeded to the crown of England in 1517 and ruled for a very long time, until his death in 1547. Weir, who has a number of histories in print about various distinguished members of British history, has done an excellent job in putting the times into focus before she proceeds to write about the monarch, his country and his people.

ANOTHER AMISH MYSTERY -- The third Amish mystery, Clouds Without Rain (Ohio University Press, $24,95 hardcover, $12.95 paperback) shows that author P.E. Gaus is in fine fettle as he again gives readers a fine mystery set in the middle of Ohio Amish country. It all sounds as authentic as one of those horse-driven buggies, which are found through the hills of Northeastern Ohio.

Gaus isn’t Amish, however. He teaches chemistry and a course in alternative cultures at the College of Wooster. He is a certified firearms instructor and a co-author of the best-selling textbook called “Basic Inorganic Chemistry.”

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