May 2011 Book of the Month.

The Confession of Katherine Howard by Suzannah Dunn tells the story of this ill-fated teenage queen as she is thrust into the wealth and terror of Henry VIII’s court. Start reading it and you'll be lured into the heady world of gamblers, courtesans and convents in 17th-century Venice. It's also an insightful foray into the life of one of Henry VIII's most misunderstood yet fascinating wives.

Comparison: Jude Morgan, Helen Dunmore, Anne Tyler
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Synopsis

This summer won't be the first time Queen Katherine has come to the throne! When twelve-year-old Katherine Howard comes to live in the Duchess of Norfolk's household, poor relation Cat Tilney is deeply suspicious. The two girls couldn't be more different: Cat, watchful and ambitious; Katherine, interested only in clothes and boys. Their companions are in thrall to Katherine, but it's Cat in whom Katherine confides and, despite herself, Cat is drawn to her. Summoned to court at seventeen, Katherine leaves Cat in the company of her ex-lover, Francis, and the two begin their own, much more serious, love affair. Within months, the king has set aside his Dutch wife Anne for Katherine. The future seems assured for the new queen and her maid-in-waiting, although Cat would feel more confident if Katherine hadn't embarked on an affair with one of the king's favoured attendants, Thomas Culpeper. However, for a blissful year and a half, it seems that Katherine can have everything she wants. But then allegations are made about her girlhood love affairs. Desperately frightened, Katherine recounts a version of events which implicates Francis but which Cat knows to be a lie. With Francis in the Tower, Cat alone knows the whole truth of Queen Katherine Howard but if she tells, Katherine will die.

Reviews

'Dunn gives the story a vivid, contemporary feel, and Katherine's conversations with her closest friend, Cathryn Tilney, are gossipy and intimate, full of sly innuendo and confidences.'
Marie Claire

'Those who have fallen in love with the drama of the Tudor period will devour the Confession of Katherine Howard!'
Scottish Sunday Herald

'Gripping, a pageturner, a thriller ! Dunn's book has an incisive insight into how manipulative people work.'
Dublin Evening Herald Praise for

'The Sixth Wife': 'My, what a story!delightfully vulgar and utterly compelling.'
The Times

'Mesmerising and beautifully written.'
Scotsman

'Suzannah Dunn weaves a kind of love story that is both moving and believable. This is the Tudor world as seldom seen!The result is historical chick lit at its most charming.'
Daily Telegraph

About the Author

Suzannah Dunn was our Guest Editor in June 2011 - click here - to see the books that inspired her writing.   Suzannah Dunn is the author of nine previous novels, Darker Days Than Usual, Blood Sugar, Past Caring, Quite Contrary, Venus Flaring, Tenterhooks, Commencing our Descent. The Queen of Subtleties (her first novel) tells the story of Anne Boleyn's downfall and was followed by the bestselling The Sixth Wife, the heartrending downfall of Katherine Parr in 2007. Her most recent novel The Queen's Sorrow, about the tragedy of Mary Tudor, was published in 2008. She lives in Shropshire.   Author photo © Caroline Forbes More books by this author Author 'Like for Like' recommendation