Writer and historian, Alison Weir, is the author of many works of non-fiction and acclaimed novels, including her latest in the Six Tudor Queens series, Anna of Kleve. She is appearing at the Richmond Literature Festival and at the National Archives in November. She talks to Pippa Duncan about giving a voice to women in history
Alison Weir’s love of history began when she was 14. Her mother marched her into the local library and demanded she get a book. Any book. She chose a trashy novel on Henry VIII and his first two wives. ‘That was it. I was absolutely hooked. It was literally this passion that was born overnight. My mother was delighted!’ Weir is now the biggest selling female historian in the UK, having published 23 titles and selling more than three million copies.
Her success comes from getting to the heart of each of her protagonists. In her Six Tudor Queens series, she writes from each wife’s viewpoint, painstakingly researching each character, much of which has covered for her non-fiction books: ‘Each book is written from each queen’s point of view, so I’m asking myself ‘could the have known this’? You have to be selective and quite careful and a rather different story emerges when you do it that way. You can’t tell the whole story, because they wouldn’t have known the whole story. There is reams of research I have done that I couldn’t include in the book because she wouldn’t have known about those events. The books only bring out that queen’s experience.’
Anna of Kleve – Henry VIII always called her Anna – was a German princess, desperate to please her king and help to maintain the balance of power in Europe through their alliance. Drawn to her through her portrait, by Hans Holbein the Younger, Henry is disappointed when she arrives at the palace. But Weir draws on new evidence to show, not a dejected and rejected bride, but a charming woman of passion, who had her own secrets who was loved by many and intrigued all.
Weir feels that talking about women in history is long overdue. ‘For so long women’s lives were overlooked. As David Starkey said, it gives an impression of imbalance because basically most history was made by white middle class males. But women’s history is interesting in their own right. I’ve always wanted to retrieve them from the past.’
She has enjoyed mixing writing fiction with non-fiction, using the research from her work as an historian to underly her novels. Her favourite queen is Katherine of Aragon – she even named her daughter after her – but the most fascinating is Anne Boleyn: ‘We can’t know her in the way we knew Katherine of Aragon. There are so many unanswered questions.’
Weir loves giving talks on her subjects, ’An author’s life is quite solitary. You do your research and you come up with new ideas and you want to share them. I love meeting fellow enthusiasts and talking to people who share this passion for history.’
Alison Weir will be talking about Anna of Kleve at the Richmond Literature Festival: 5 November, Old Town Hall, tickets £10 (richmondliterature.com) and at the National Archives on 26 November, with Siobhan Clarke, discussing A Tudor Christmas, tickets £12-15 (nationalarchives.gov.uk).
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