ANNE BOLEYN

• 'Lacey Baldwin Smith is one of our finest historians' ALISON WEIR.
• A sparkling new biography by one of the greats of Tudor scholarship, Professor Lacey Baldwin Smith.
• Features a startling new discovery about why Anne was executed. Anne's previous biographers have got it wrong. Alison Weir and Eric Ives argue that Thomas Cromwell was totally responsible; George Bernard believes she was guilty as charged. Professor Smith has got into the Tudor mindset to deliver the real reason...
• HILARY MANTEL'S bestselling novel Bring Up the Bodies, is the story of the downfall of Anne Boleyn and has increased interest in the life story of Anne Boleyn. A major mini-series is due from the BBC and a US broadcaster of Mantel's trilogy of novels (broadcast dates tbc) will increase interest further.
The story of Anne Boleyn goes to the root of all history; what makes an individual or event memorable to later generations? Anne is an exceptional case for her life was a double helix intertwining extraordinary human drama with profound historical crisis. A young lady of no particular importance or talents - she was neither a great beauty or a captivating charmer - married a man who turned out to be England's most notorious monarchy, and then three years later she was publically executed for treason, accused of quadruple adultery and incest.

Mistress Boleyn was the crucial catalysts for three of the most important events in modern history: the break with Rome and the English Reformation, the advent of the nation state, and the birth of a daughter whose 43 years on the throne stand as England's most spectacular literary and political success story. Remove Anne and the Reformation as we know it today would not have taken place; remove Anne and Elizabeth I would not have existed at all. Anne Boleyn stands as a monument to the truth that there is nothing consistent in history except the unexpected.