Alison Weir ( Matthews; born 1951) is a British author and

public historian Public history is a broad range of activities undertaken by people with some training in the discipline of history who are generally working outside of specialized academic settings. Public history practice is deeply rooted in the areas of historic ...

. She primarily writes about the history of English royal women and families, in the form of biographies that explore their historical setting. She has also written numerous works of

historical fiction Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other t ...

. Her first work, ''Britain's Royal Families'' (published in 1989), was a genealogical overview of the British royal family. She subsequently wrote biographies of

Eleanor of Aquitaine Eleanor ( – 1 April 1204; french: Aliénor d'Aquitaine, ) was Queen of France from 1137 to 1152 as the wife of King Louis VII, List of English royal consorts, Queen of England from 1154 to 1189 as the wife of Henry II of England, King Henry I ...

, Isabella of France,

Katherine Swynford Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster (born Katherine de Roet, – 10 May 1403), also spelled Katharine or Catherine, was the third wife of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the fourth (but third surviving) son of King Edward III. Daughte ...

, Elizabeth of York, and the Princes in the Tower. Other focuses have included

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

and his family and England's Medieval Queens. Weir has published historical overviews of the

Wars of the Roses The Wars of the Roses (1455–1487), known at the time and for more than a century after as the Civil Wars, were a series of civil wars fought over control of the throne of England, English throne in the mid-to-late fifteenth century. These w ...

and royal weddings, as well as historical fiction novels on English queens, including each wife of Henry VIII.

Early life

Weir was born in 1951 and brought up in Westminster, London. She has been married to Rankin Weir since 1972,GRO Register of Marriages: DEC 1972 5d 1846 PANCRAS Rankin Weir=Alison Matthews and now lives in Surrey. She described her mother as "a genuinely good person with heaps of integrity, strength of character, humour and wisdom, and has overcome life’s trials with commendable fortitude."GRO Register of Births: SEP 1951 5c 1617 LAMBETH, mmn=Marston Weir recalls how, at the age of fourteen, she read Lozania Prole's ''Henry's Golden Queen'', a "really trashy" novel about the life of

Catherine of Aragon Catherine of Aragon (also spelt as Katherine, ; 16 December 1485 – 7 January 1536) was Queen of England as the first wife of King Henry VIII from their marriage on 11 June 1509 until their annulment on 23 May 1533. She was previously ...

. She then became interested in the field of history. She was educated at

City of London School for Girls The City of London School for Girls (CLSG) is an independent school in the Barbican in the City of London. It is the partner school of the all-boys City of London School and the City of London Freemen's School. All three schools receive funding f ...

and

North Western Polytechnic The University of North London (UNL) was a university in London, England, formed from the Polytechnic of North London (PNL) in 1992 when that institution was granted university status. PNL, in turn, had been formed by the amalgamation of the No ...

, becoming a history teacher. She opted to abandon teaching as a career after a disillusion with "trendy teaching methods", so she worked as a civil servant, and later as a housewife and mother. Between 1991 and 1997, she ran a school for children with learning difficulties.

Career

Non-fiction

In the 1970s, Weir spent four years researching and writing a biography of the six wives of

. Her work was deemed too long by publishers, and was consequently rejected. A revised version would be published in 1991 as her second book, ''The Six Wives of Henry VIII''. In 1981, she wrote a book on

Jane Seymour Jane Seymour (c. 150824 October 1537) was Queen of England as the third wife of King Henry VIII of England from their marriage on 30 May 1536 until her death the next year. She became queen following the execution of Henry's second wife, Anne ...

, which was again rejected by publishers, this time because it was too short. Weir finally became a published author in 1989 with ''Britain's Royal Families'', a compilation of genealogical information about the British Royal Family. She had revised the work eight times over a twenty-two-year period, and decided that it might be "of interest to others". After organising it into chronological order,

The Bodley Head The Bodley Head is an English publishing house, founded in 1887 and existing as an independent entity until the 1970s. The name was used as an imprint of Random House Children's Books from 1987 to 2008. In April 2008, it was revived as an adul ...

agreed to publish it. Weir would not start writing full-time until the late 1990s. While running the school for children with learning difficulties, she published the non-fiction works ''The Princes in the Tower'' (1992), ''Lancaster and York: The Wars of the Roses'' (1995), and ''Children of England: The Heirs of King Henry VIII'' (1996). Now writing books full-time, she produced ''Elizabeth the Queen'' (1998) (published in America as ''The Life of Elizabeth I''), ''

: By the Wrath of God, Queen of England'' (1999), ''Henry VIII: The King and His Court'' (2001), ''

Mary, Queen of Scots Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567. The only surviving legitimate child of James V of S ...

and the Murder of Lord Darnley'' (2003), and '' Isabella: She-Wolf of France, Queen of England'' (2005). '' Katherine Swynford: The Story of John of Gaunt and his Scandalous Duchess'' followed in 2007, and ''The Lady in The Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn'' in 2009. ''Traitors of the Tower'' came out in 2010. The following year, she completed ''The Ring and the Crown: A History of Royal Weddings'' and ''Mary Boleyn: The Mistress of Kings'', the first full non-fiction biography of

Mary Boleyn Mary Boleyn, also known as Lady Mary, (c. 1499 – 19 July 1543) was the sister of English queen consort Anne Boleyn, whose family enjoyed considerable influence during the reign of King Henry VIII. Mary was one of the mistresses of Henry VI ...

, sister of Anne Boleyn. In 2013 she published ''Elizabeth of York – A Tudor Queen and Her World'', a biography on Elizabeth of York, mother of Henry VIII. Weir has written two books on England's Medieval Queens: ''Queens of Conquest'' published in 2017 and ''Queens of the Crusades'', published 5 November 2020 by

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

. Many of Weir's works deal with the

Tudor period The Tudor period occurred between 1485 and 1603 in England and Wales and includes the Elizabethan period during the reign of Elizabeth I until 1603. The Tudor period coincides with the dynasty of the House of Tudor in England that began wit ...

, which she considers "the most dramatic period in our history, with vivid, strong personalities... The Tudor period is the first one for which we have a rich visual record, with the growth of portraiture, and detailed sources on the private lives of kings and queens. This was an age that witnessed a growth in diplomacy and the spread of the printed word."

Fiction

Weir wrote historical novels while a teenager, and her novel in the genre of historical fiction, ''

Innocent Traitor ''Innocent Traitor: A Novel of Lady Jane Grey'' is a historical novel by Alison Weir, published in 2006. It is the story of Lady Jane Grey, who was Queen of England for nine days in 1553. Previously known for her non-fiction publications, ''Inno ...

'', based on the life of

Lady Jane Grey Lady Jane Grey ( 1537 – 12 February 1554), later known as Lady Jane Dudley (after her marriage) and as the "Nine Days' Queen", was an English noblewoman who claimed the throne of England and Ireland from 10 July until 19 July 1553. Jane was ...

, was published in 2006. When researching

, Weir realised that it would "be very liberating to write a novel in which I could write what I wanted while keeping to the facts". She decided to make Jane Grey her focus because she "didn't have a very long life and there wasn't a great deal of material". She found the transition to fiction easy, explaining, "Every book is a learning curve, and you have to keep an open mind. I am sometimes asked to cut back on the historical facts in my novels, and there have been disagreements over whether they obstruct the narrative, but I do hold out for the history whenever I can." Her second novel is ''The Lady Elizabeth'', which deals with the life of

Queen Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". Eli ...

before her ascent to the throne. It was published in 2008 in the United Kingdom and United States. Her next novel, ''The Captive Queen'', was released in the summer of 2010. Its subject, Eleanor of Aquitaine, had been the subject of a non-fiction biography by Weir in 1999. ''Traitors of the Tower'' is a

novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) fact ...

written by Weir and published on World Book Day 2010. Working with Quick Reads and Skillswise, Weir has recorded the first chapter as a taster and introduction to get people back into the habit of reading. Weir published ''The Marriage Game'', a historical novel featuring Elizabeth I and

Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, (24 June 1532 – 4 September 1588) was an English statesman and the favourite of Elizabeth I from her accession until his death. He was a suitor for the queen's hand for many years. Dudley's youth was o ...

, in June 2014. In May 2016 her novel ''Katherine of Aragon, The True Queen'' was published, the first of a six-book series on the theme of ''Six Tudor Queens'', each covering one of Henry VIII's six wives. The final novel in the series, ''Katharine Parr, The Sixth Wife'' was published in May 2021.

Writing style

Weir's writings have been described as being in the genre of popular history, an area that sometimes attracts criticism from academia; according to one source, popular history "seeks to inform and entertain a large general audience... Dramatic storytelling often prevails over analysis, style over substance, simplicity over complexity, and grand generalization over careful qualification." Weir argues that "history is not the sole preserve of academics, although I have the utmost respect for those historians who undertake new research and contribute something new to our knowledge. History belongs to us all, and it can be accessed by us all. And if writing it in a way that is accessible and entertaining, as well as conscientiously researched, can be described as popular, then, yes, I am a popular historian, and am proud and happy to be one."

Kathryn Hughes Kathryn Hughes (born 1959) is a British academic, journalist and biographer. Educated at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University and the University of East Anglia (UEA); her doctorate in Victorian history

, writing in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'', said of Weir's popular historian label, "To describe her as a popular historian would be to state a literal truth – her chunky explorations of Britain's early modern past sell in the kind of multiples that others can only dream of." Reviews of Weir's works have been mixed. ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

'' said of ''The Lady in the Tower'' that "it is testament to Weir's artfulness and elegance as a writer that The Lady in the Tower remains fresh and suspenseful, even though the reader knows what's coming." On the other hand,

Diarmaid MacCulloch Diarmaid Ninian John MacCulloch (; born 31 October 1951) is an English academic and historian, specialising in ecclesiastical history and the history of Christianity. Since 1995, he has been a fellow of St Cross College, Oxford; he was forme ...

, in a review of ''Henry VIII: King and Court'', called it "a great pudding of a book, which will do no harm to those who choose to read it. Detail is here in plenty, but Tudor England is more than royal wardrobe lists, palaces and sexual intrigue." ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'', reviewing the novel, ''The Captive Queen'', said that she had "skillfully imagined royal lives" in previous works, "but her style here is marred by less than subtle characterizations and some seriously cheesy writing", while ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...

'' said of the same book, "12th-century France could be the dark side of the moon for all we learn about it by the end of this book."

Personal life

Weir lives in

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant ur ...

with her husband and two sons. She has called "Mrs Ellen", a fictional character from her novel about Jane Grey, most like her own personality, commenting that, "As I was writing the book, my maternal side was projected into this character." Weir is a supporter of the renovation of Northampton Castle, explaining that the estate is a "historic site of prime importance; it would be tragic if it were to be lost forever. I applaud the work of the Friends of Northampton Castle in lobbying for its excavation and for the regeneration of the area that would surely follow."

Works

Non fiction

* ''Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy'' (1989) * '' The Six Wives of Henry VIII'' (1991) * ''The Princes in the Tower'' (1992) * ''Lancaster and York – The Wars of the Roses'' (1995) * ''Children of England: The Heirs of King Henry VIII'' (1996, later reissued as ''The Children of Henry VIII'') * ''Elizabeth the Queen'' (1998) (published in America as ''The Life of Elizabeth I'') * ''Eleanor of Aquitaine: By the Wrath of God, Queen of England'' (1999) * ''Henry VIII: The King and His Court'' (2001) * ''Mary, Queen of Scots and the Murder of Lord Darnley'' (2003) * ''Isabella: She-Wolf of France, Queen of England'' (2005) * '' Katherine Swynford: The Story of John of Gaunt and his Scandalous Duchess'' (2007) * ''The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn'' (2009) * ''Traitors of the Tower'' (2010) * ''The Ring and the Crown: A History of Royal Weddings'' (2011) * ''Mary Boleyn: The Mistress of Kings'' (2011) * ''Elizabeth of York – A Tudor Queen and Her World'' (2013) * ''The Lost Tudor Princess: A Life of Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox'' (2015) * ''Queens of the Conquest'' (2017) * ''A Tudor Christmas'' (2018) * ''Queens of the Crusades'' (2020)

Fiction

* ''

: A Novel of Lady Jane Grey'' (2006) * ''The Lady Elizabeth'' (2008) * ''The Captive Queen'' (2010) * ''Dangerous Inheritance: A Novel of Tudor Rivals and the Secret of the Tower'' (2012) * ''The Marriage Game: A Novel of Elizabeth I'' (2014) * ''Katherine of Aragon: The True Queen'' (2016) * ''Anne Boleyn: A King's Obsession'' (2017) * ''Jane Seymour: The Haunted Queen'' (2018) * ''Anna of Kleve: Queen of Secrets'' (2019) * ''Katheryn Howard: The Tainted Queen'' (2020) * ''Katherine Parr: The Sixth Wife'' (2021) * ''In the Shadow of Queens: Tales from the Tudor Court'' (2021) * ''Elizabeth of York: The Last White Rose'' (2022)

Notes

External links

Alison Weir: official site

Penguin Random House: Alison Weir
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weir, Alison 1951 births 20th-century English historians 21st-century English historians 21st-century English novelists 20th-century English women writers 21st-century English women writers Living people People educated at the City of London School for Girls People from Westminster Alumni of the University of North London Historians of England English historical novelists Women historical novelists English biographers English women novelists British women historians English women non-fiction writers Women biographers Writers from London