The Tudors — G.J. Meyer

Meyer's history of the Tudor dynasty takes a deliberately sceptical view of its subjects — particularly of Henry VIII, whose reputation for charm and magnificence he finds largely a product of royal propaganda and subsequent mythology. The book covers all five Tudor monarchs and is particularly strong on the human cost of the English Reformation: the executions, the suppressions, the violence done to a country's religious culture in the course of a king's need for a legitimate heir. Meyer is American, which gives him a useful distance from the national pride that can soften English accounts of the same material.

'Meyer writes with the confidence and clarity of the best popular history. The Tudors is a welcome corrective to the romantic myths that still surround the period.' — The Spectator. 'Compelling and authoritative.' — Sunday Telegraph