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11:24 pm
August 27, 2012
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I was wondering if anyone had heard of this new book? I think it’s either just been released or about to have been released in the United States ( where Susan herself is based)- it sounds quite interesting! It’s more about debunking the myths that have sprung up about Anne over the years and how she has been portrayed fictionally ( apparently very critical of TOBG 
) i have looked on the site and there are some great interviews with historian Suzannah Lipsomb among other- even Genevieve Bujold from Anne of the Thousand days fame 
on historical fact and fiction which i found very interesting! I certainly will be buying myself a copy at some point- when it’s released here in the UK
11:43 pm
June 15, 2012
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Yes, I’ve got it on pre-order at the Book Depository! 
5:13 pm
June 7, 2010
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James, the book is avaliable for pre-order on Amazon.co.uk. It will be released in the UK on 9 April. I am not sure if bookshops will carry it.
I’ve also pre-ordered through Amazon.ca. I am very excited about this book!
"By daily proof you shall find me to be to you both loving and kind" Anne Boleyn
11:14 pm
August 27, 2012
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Thanks for letting me know Duchess it sounds like a really interesting book- i wonder if Susan has any plans for UK promotion- does anyone know? Will certainly be getting this
11:37 pm
June 15, 2012
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The Book Depository has free international postage though…
2:20 am
November 18, 2010
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Gill said
The Book Depository has free international postage though…
Tell that to JFK…
sowwy..
It's always bunnies.
11:29 pm
August 27, 2012
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Hahaha thanks Gill, i will look into it i promise .
I believe Suzannah Lipscomb has done a review of this book as well- and recommended it, which is a big plus. Not sure how to post the review here exactly, but she did post it to her Facebook and Twitter account/page, so if anyone else is not as hopeless as me at these things, perhaps they could kindly post it here.
9:54 pm
October 28, 2011
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Is that the book where she dedicates a whole chapter to why Philippa Gregory is terrible and Loades, Hicks and Mantel gang up on her? I read a blog about a forthcoming book and I am sure it was it.
If so I will skip it. I’ve got no interest in reading about fiction books in my history book.
10:39 pm
November 22, 2011
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Olga, Gareth Russell wrote an excellent review of Susan Bordo’s book that might interest you.
8:02 pm
December 5, 2009
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The premise of this book is how Anne is perceived by us today. As much of that perception owes itself substantially to fictional accounts it would be impossible to write a book of this nature without referring to the fiction which forms so many opinions.
2:55 am
October 28, 2011
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Yes Louise, in the chapter I read she also called Philippa Gregory fans “sycophants” or something similar. I was flattered. Using an author like Hilary Mantel, or a historian who wrote a book on the Boleyns which was full of mistakes, or a producer who made The Tudors as references on how to do it better than Gregory is just plain hysterical. I know Loades has a bug-bear with her, he managed to bitch about her in his preface in The Boleyns. If only he had directed some of that energy towards actual research.
Thanks for the link Mariette, it’s a good review, but I prefer to save my pennies.
9:49 am
December 5, 2009
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I am going to read this book when it comes out. I agree though that if she attacks Gregory but leaves Mantel and Hirst unscathed then I won’t be happy. Mantel is as inaccurate as Gregory, perhaps more so, and it annoys me that she gets away without the same level of criticism because she’s considered the better writer. I’ll be interested to see what Bordo says.
Enough said about the Loades ‘Boleyn’ book the better. I was also very disappointed in Lacey Baldwin Smith’s recent biography of Anne for the same reasons. He rejects the theories of Ives and Warnicke as little better than fiction, which may be right, but he spends too much time criticising them and too little time on independent and thorough research of his own.
11:57 pm
November 22, 2011
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James33 said
I believe Suzannah Lipscomb has done a review of this book as well- and recommended it, which is a big plus. Not sure how to post the review here exactly, but she did post it to her Facebook and Twitter account/page, so if anyone else is not as hopeless as me at these things, perhaps they could kindly post it here
James33, Suzannah mentioned the book here
Anne Boleyn fans will soon revel in a new iconoclastic, myth-busting book by Susan Bordo, 'The Creation of Anne Boleyn' http://t.co/j0mmfWg5
— Suzannah Lipscomb (@sixteenthCgirl) November 24, 2012
which links to Susan Bordo’s interview with Lipscomb.
http://thecreationofanneboleyn…..01/25/453/
If Suzannah has written a review of the book I couldn’t find it.
12:37 am
November 22, 2011
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Olga said
I know Loades has a bug-bear with her, he managed to bitch about her in his preface in The Boleyns. If only he had directed some of that energy towards actual research.
lol
Thanks for the link Mariette, it’s a good review, but I prefer to save my pennies.
I gave Loades’s ‘The Boleyn’s’ a miss but this one looks interesting.
12:57 am
November 22, 2011
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Louise said
I am going to read this book when it comes out. I agree though that if she attacks Gregory but leaves Mantel and Hirst unscathed then I won’t be happy. Mantel is as inaccurate as Gregory, perhaps more so, and it annoys me that she gets away without the same level of criticism because she’s considered the better writer. I’ll be interested to see what Bordo says.
I’m very curious to see what Bordo has to say about Mantel ( I haven’t read Hirst).
If this excerpt is the standard of Bordo’s writing I can’t wait to read it. This is a vivid and moving depiction of Anne’s execution.
http://www.thecreationofannebo…..cerpt.html
I was also very disappointed in Lacey Baldwin Smith’s recent biography of Anne for the same reasons. He rejects the theories of Ives and Warnicke as little better than fiction, which may be right, but he spends too much time criticising them and too little time on independent and thorough research of his own.
Louise, do you feel that the Lacey Baldwin Smith’s book is worth reading or is it just a rehash of the same old inaccurate, unsupported drivel?
11:17 pm
October 28, 2011
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Mariette Hirst created The Tudors television show, and I think the Elizabeth movie (with Cate Blanchett) Which should show his commitment to historical accuracy
12:30 am
November 22, 2011
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Olga said
Mariette Hirst created The Tudors television show, and I think the Elizabeth movie (with Cate Blanchett) Which should show his commitment to historical accuracy
lol,Olga I see what you mean!
Louise, just answered my own question after downloading the kindle version of Lacey Baldwin’s Smith’s ‘Anne Boleyn: Queen of Controversy’. I have to agree with your comments.
11:33 pm
I read The Creation of Anne Boleyn the other week and really enjoyed it. Although it does give an outline of Anne’s life and the facts we know, as opposed to someone’s speculations and imagination, and shows how negativity can come from placing too much reliance on the factual accuracy of a single source, much of the book is about Anne in popular culture since her death. If you don’t want to read about novels then this is not the book for you. The study of fiction is a perfectly legitimate subject, and indeed in many cases such as Anne’s, fiction has far more to say in how she is perceived than any number of facts. The use writers make of the character of Anne is quite fascinating.
3:14 am
Alexandria said
I read The Creation of Anne Boleyn the other week and really enjoyed it. Although it does give an outline of Anne’s life and the facts we know, as opposed to someone’s speculations and imagination, and shows how negativity can come from placing too much reliance on the factual accuracy of a single source, much of the book is about Anne in popular culture since her death. If you don’t want to read about novels then this is not the book for you. The study of fiction is a perfectly legitimate subject, and indeed in many cases such as Anne’s, fiction has far more to say in how she is perceived than any number of facts. The use writers make of the character of Anne is quite fascinating.
^^^Agreed.
I also really loved Susan Bordo’s book, and in fact, her book is how I clued in to the existence of this forum. 🙂 I’m pretty sure that Claire put the link up about the book on the Facebook page, and it looked good, so I got it for my Kindle. Then, Bordo mentions this board in her book…so here I am. lol
From what I understand, the main complaints are that Bordo doesn’t have a history background, per se, and she’s really not an expert on Anne, so therefore she shouldn’t be writing about her, or disparaging people who have spent their lives studying Anne, and I understand that. But Bordo makes a pointed effort to say that she is not attempting to retell the events of Anne’s life, she is merely examining how the myth of Anne Boleyn has been created over the last 500 years. She says a lot of things in that book that I’ve thought before, but couldn’t quite find the words to express. Mostly she deals with the agendas of various historians and biographers, and the possible reasons why some people thinks Anne is evil (the early Catholic writers, for example) or some say she’s a saint (Protestants and early feminists). And she marvels that, in a world where we’re constantly bombarded by Kardashians and Real Housewives, so many women today are drawn to Anne’s story, and actually have some semblance of understanding her.
As for Mantel, yes, she is pretty easy on her, especially compared to SWMNBN, but she still calls her out for her portrayal of Anne. Really, I’d say she’s hardest on Henry, which doesn’t bother me in the least.
10:45 am
January 3, 2012
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I don’t believe, that being an expert with all the fancy bells, whistles, letters and titles after your name, makes any difference to the what type of historian you are to be honest.
I have no formal qualifications and spent most of my scholastic years hopping the wag, but if you have the drive and the determination to put pen to paper or in this case fingers to keyboard, you can do anything.
A factual writer does have a harder time of things in my opinion, as what ever they say about Anne or whomever they are writing about they have to state, where and how they came to the conclusion of what they have written.
A fictional writer, can bend the rules and use his/her imagination to create a story. The trouble with writers like SWMNBN and Hilariously Mental is they forget that what they have written is just a story then go as far to say that what they have a written is true. Which creates all sorts of problems.
Somewhere on the forum is a radio interview that SWMNBN did, in it she states that Anne was “Almost, probably, certainly guilty” 
Leaving me to yell “Well which is it woman?” Followed by her statement “But I like Anne I really do” By which point of course I am foaming at the mouth and chewing lumps out of dinosaur.. LOL
Hilariously Mental’s books “Wolf Hall” and Bring up the B******s” Ebooks were consigned to bin 13 after reading just a few pages of each. If they had been real books, the Chipmunks would have found a use for them, just as they did SWMNBN book “The Virgin’s Lover”.
It’s certainly true that we can never ever know what truly went on in any period of history and even with the benefit of a time machine, if we were able to travel back though time and see what went on, each person’s perception of what went on would be different, as no 2 opinions will be the same verbatim.
Semper Fidelis, quod sum quod
