Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you’re all having a good day today.
Today I am bringing you my review for The Anne Boleyn Bible by Mickey Mayhew. As with all reviews from now on I will not be splitting the review into categories anymore, I will be giving my overall thoughts in a few paragraphs and then I will be giving one final star ratings.
Anne Boleyn sells, but she sells in segments; a biography here, a study over there on her guilt and something else yonder concerned with where she lived or what she liked to wear. This book, covering not just her life but her life onscreen, in theater, on TV and also the impact of the first black actress to play her, is the definitive, all-encompassing story of Anne Boleyn from 1501 (or thereabouts) to 2023. Having examined the ardent fandom of Anne Boleyn for his doctorate, Dr Mickey Mayhew is in a unique position to offer something new to say on this much-discussed ‘tragic’ Tudor queen and is not afraid to tackle some of the less palatable aspects of her life.
Also, this book is the first to examine with authenticity the reality of Anne’s relationship with the most important man in her life, the man whose name she repeated in comfort while facing the Swordsman of Calais on the scaffold, having spent her life promulgating his doctrine; Jesus Christ himself. As for the aforementioned executioner, Dr Mayhew’s research in Calais and Saint-Omer can now lift a lid on a few of the particulars of this elusive and yet essential figure of Anne Boleyn mythos; and yes, now he even has a name as well.
The Anne Boleyn Bible also offers a straightforward retelling of Anne’s actual historical life, albeit one that outlines an entirely fresh and empowering perspective on her rise to prominence; this is followed by a series of considered arguments on the ‘for’ and ‘against’ in regard to her guilt & execution; then her entry into popular culture, firstly in plays and masques, before she went on to headline movies, TV series, cosplay, and now, with the first black woman to portray her, model and actress Jodie Turner-Smith. This book is simply what it says on the cover – The Anne Boleyn Bible – leaving no depiction, no religious aspect, no appearance in popular culture, from The Simpsons to the West End musical ‘Six’, overlooked; likewise, Dr Mayhew also turns his trademark brand of rather wry commentary toward the vast plethora of Anne Boleyn merchandising, tourist spots, rubber ducks, beanies and the wrangling question of who was the ultimate onscreen Anne; Geneviève Bujold or Natalie Dormer?!
My Review:
Okay, where to start with this one. I have wanted this book for so long, months, and I couldn’t get my hands on it where I live until finally I got it for Christmas from my Parents. Of course, I forgot everything else I was doing and I read this book straightaway. My overall thoughts after reading was that I was disappointed. I don’t know if it was because I had hyped it up in my mind or just because I have read a lot around Anne Boleyn already, I don’t know but it was not as engaging or interesting as I thought it would be.
I found the biographical chapters, such as information about Anne’s childhood and particularly the chapters about religion and the ways she engaged with it, quite good. I thought they were interesting, there wasn’t anything really new in the chapters which was the start of the disappointment for me. Everything about the book was sold as having this new information, about her life, about her relationship with Jesus and particularly about the swordsman of Calais. I saw a lot of tweets by the author about this topic and how he had this information about the identity of the swordsman of Calais and had travelled and seen the actual sword. This is described in the book, his visit to see the sword and it details how he felt in that moment and all of that, but it covers about two pages of the book and that was it. He doesn’t go into detail about any of it.
If you are interested in reading an overview of Anne Boleyn’s life and death and you haven’t read around the subject much then you may enjoy this but as a book to add something new to the subject, I don’t think this book does that.
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