Advertisement

The Queen of Subtleties

Reading Time:1 minute
Why you can trust SCMP
0

The Queen of Subtleties

by Suzannah Dunn

Harper Perennial $124

While incarcerated in the Tower of London awaiting execution on phoney charges of adultery, Anne Boleyn writes her memoir for her daughter, Elizabeth. The account of her journey from commoner to queen to death-row prisoner is designed to make herself look good. In alternate chapters, the kitchen confectioner, Lucy Cornwallis, tells her version of events. Lucy is the 'queen' of the title. The only woman in a kitchen of 200 men, she sculpts sugar into fantastic 'subtleties' for royal celebrations. Lucy reveals that, by taking Henry from his first wife, the Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon, Anne made powerful enemies. The people accuse her of bewitching Henry, and he blames her for not producing a male heir. Although the setting is historically accurate, the dialogue is oddly contemporary. Anne calls Catherine 'Fat Cath', while her brother, George, announces an impromptu gathering by crying: 'Everybody back to mine.'

Advertisement
Advertisement