|  | By Victoria Roddam Irreverent, bawdy, witty and erudite
I'm not referring to Henry or his wives, but the popular historian, writer and commentator David Starkey, whose recent performance at the Oxford Literary Festival kept the audience hanging on his every word, and eager for more. A regular panelist on BBC Radio 4's The Moral Maze, Starkey is no abstract, dry-as-dust historian, but a delighted and delightful re-creator of the pageantry of the past, and an expert on the intricacies of Tudor life. Based on his recent book, The Six Wives of Henry VIII, Starkey's whistle-stop tour of the fated spouses embraces everything from comparisons with Beckham and Posh to shocking revelations from the Tudor bedchamber. Starting with the ill-fated Catherine of Aragon, he provides a tantalizing snapshot of the domestic life of a medieval queen, punctuated as it was by yearly pregnancies and agonizing miscarriages. From here he moves to his 'favourite' wife, Anne Boleyn, described in memorable terms as 'a bit of a goer'. More seriously, Starkey reminds us, Anne was not only something of free spirit, her grasp of 'boudoir power', as he calls it, changed the course of history forever
Comparing Henry rather unfavourably with the airport drunk who lines one drink up after another, Starkey then proceeds to Jane Seymour, reminding us that 'the perfect wife is a dead wife', before skipping rather too quickly over the final three queens and taking some spirited questions and answers. His methods may be unorthdox, but Starkey's research is grounded in scholarly sources. Like him or hate him - and critics generally fall into one of these camps - there is no doubting his ability to bring history to life, or to capture the manner in which, nearly half-a-century later, our preoccupations and daily lives remain uncannily similar to those of Tudor England. For more information visit the Oxford Literary Festival Website. Back to reviews >>> |
