Adventures In Time: The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Dominic Sandbrook

Book Review Jul 01, 2024

My review

3/5 stars

I spotted this on the shelf in the children's section of my local library (I was there with my kids) and it caught my eye. I'm a sucker for anything Tudor, so I borrowed it.

I'm not sure where the disconnect came from but I was expecting something completely different from this book, having read the blurb. I was expecting some sort of semi-factual, semi-fictional romp through the time period, but what this actually provided was an older-child / teen appropriate version of historical events.

I enjoyed the content for what it was, but given that I've done a lot of adult reading on the subject so it didn't offer me anything that I didn't already have some awareness of. I appreciate that it was positioned well for a younger audience and I'd be happy to give it to my kids when they're a bit older.

I'm happy to hold my hands up on this one and say that I might have assumed something that I shouldn't have about the content of the book, but that doesn't change the fact that I didn't get what I thought I was going to when I picked it up, so ultimately it was just an ok read for me.

Book blurb

'Winter has come; and in a far distant land, a warrior queen is expecting a child...'

Step through these pages into the Tudor world: a dangerous place, where one miss-step could cost your life. Through the eyes of Henry VIII's six very different queens, from a brave Spanish princess to a wise English widow, historian Dominic Sandbrook takes us on a thrilling journey through the twists and turns of a dramatic age. For no one is safe from the wheel of fortune: it can take you from a golden throne to the Tower of London...

The Adventures in Time series brings the past alive for twenty-first century children. These stories are every bit as exciting as those of Harry Potter or Matilda Wormwood. The only difference is they actually happened...