Sunday Short Takes

Yes, really, a Sunday Short Takes!! I finally had a confluence of enough stuff to post and time to actually post it.

First up – a couple of competitions are back this year!

* Tudor Ghost Story Competition at On the Tudor Trail

* Tudor Calendar Competition from The Anne Boleyn Files

Next – a few other things!

* Talking Tudors – Natalie at On the Tudor Trail has started a podcast!

* Tudor shipwreck discovered by local group on Kent beach

* Royal Mail will release stamps featuring Hampton Court Palace

And finally…

The first trailer for the Mary Queen of Scots movie starring Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie has been released:

(Thankfully I’m pretty good at disconnecting my amateur historian brain when watching historical fiction on TV or the big screen.)

Picture of the Week #500

Carvings under the Anne Boleyn Gatehouse at Hampton Court Palace. Photo May 2015.

When I was continuing the long, slow process of editing all of my photos from three years ago, I finished this one and thought it would be a good choice for the milestone of Picture of the Week #500. I knew I had used a similar one from a previous trip and when I looked it up, low and behold, it was the one I used for the earlier milestone of #100! So here is a new version of that previous photo, this time a more centered view and natively digital and not from a scanned photo negative.

Upcoming Books, Events and Exhibitions for June 2018

Books

A couple of books that have already been released in the UK are now out in the US:

First up – Melita Thomas’ The King’s Pearl: Henry VIII and His Daughter Mary came out last fall in the UK and is now out in the US:

And La Reine Blanche: Mary Tudor A Life in Letters by Sarah Bryson is also now out in the US after a release earlier this year in the UK:

And in new releases – Claire Ridgway of The Anne Boleyn Files has teamed up with artist Dmitry Yakhovsky to create The Life of Anne Boleyn Colouring Book! You can order it from both the UK and US Amazon stores now:

Events

Henry – A Tudor Musical will run from June 13 to 16 at the Cecil Hepworth Playhouse in Walton on Thames (just west of Hampton Court Palace). You can learn more about the musical play and books tickets at the website of the Molesey Musical Theatre. And here is a synopsis with more information (PDF).

Exhibitions

Royal Sudeley 1000

Picture of the Week #498

Figure of Bishop John Fisher at Rochester Cathedral.

This is one of eight statues on the 19th century screen between the nave and quire of the cathedral. John Fisher was Bishop of Rochester and confessor to Margaret Beaufort and was later beheaded in the reign of her grandson, Henry VIII.

Picture of the Week #497

Ruins of the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds. Photo May 2015.

The abbey was the original burial place of of Mary Tudor, Queen of France and Duchess of Suffolk, but she was moved to the nearby St Mary’s Church during the Dissolution.

Upcoming Books, Events and Exhibitions for May 2018

Time for the round-up for the merry month of May!

Books

Four Queens and a Countess: Mary Queen of Scots, Elizabeth I, Mary I, Lady Jane Grey and Bess of Hardwick by Jill Armitage will be out in the US on May 1 after a release last year in the UK.

And there are some new books for May:

In more academic fare, Juana I: Legitimacy and Conflict in Sixteenth-Century Castile by Gillian B. Fleming, part of the Queenship and Power series, was released in April in the US and will be out on May 17 in the UK.

Natalie Grueninger and Kathryn Holeman have teamed up again for more Tudor coloring book fun! You can order Colouring History – Tudor Queens and Consorts from Amazon US and through ColouringTudorHistory.com

Events

I have a couple of upcoming Tudor history stage productions coming up, one for May and one for June:

First up, Put Out the Lights by Joanna Carrick will run from May 8 to 27 at The Avenue Theatre in Ipswich. Tickets can be purchased at the Red Rose Chain website.
About the play:

1538. Ipswich is a place of dark secrets and divided loyalties. A preacher is dragged from his pulpit, arrested for protestant heresy, while Cromwell sends agents to dismantle the Town