New blog header!

Three months have gone by, so it’s time to rotate the blog header! As I’m sure at least some of you will recognize, this new one is from the Field of the Cloth of Gold (painted c. 1545, although the event itself occurred in 1520).

Happy New Year!

Sorry there haven’t been a lot of posts here over the holidays! I had intended to do at least one news round-up over the break but the hard drive on my main computer at home finally cratered (thankfully it was under warranty and I had a full back-up) and although I love my little, fast laptop, it really doesn’t have the screen real estate for the way I do my news posts. And of course any hopes of continuing to re-do and update pages on the static part of the site was out of the question since all of my design software is on the desktop. But, enough of my technological woes…

I expect the first six weeks of 2012 to be pretty busy, so I don’t know that I’ll be able to do a whole lot more blogging than what you’ve all probably become accustomed to, but hopefully after mid-February I’ll have more time. (For anyone who is curious – the next six weeks include the American Astronomical Society meeting, the start of the academic semester, our annual board meeting and doing some much-needed maintenance on the telescopes I oversee at work, which didn’t get done in December due to poor weather. So that means most of January and the first half of February will probably be a big blur.) My plans for 2012 include more writing on lots of things – Tudor and non-Tudor – and I really hope this is a resolution I’ll be able to keep!

Best wishes for 2012 everyone!

Sunday Short Takes

* Tanner Ritchie’s annual Holiday and New Year sale is on again! If you’re in to primary sources this is a great place to get some at a good price.

* Chatham dig finds Tudor dockyard remains

* Novel Approaches: From Academic History to Historical Fiction – The IHR had their first virtual conference on this topic and you can see all the presentations at the website.

And finally…

* If you have a few spare tens of thousands of pounds, you can bid on some late 16th century (or later) portraits of Catherine of Aragon and Katherine Parr on auction next week at Christie’s. And if you have a few spare MILLION – you can bid on some of Elizabeth Taylor’s jewelry, including La Peregrina, a pearl given to Mary I by her husband Philip of Spain. Many centuries later it was given to Taylor by her husband Richard Burton (who played Henry VIII in Anne of the Thousand Days).

Wolf Hall sequel update and mini-series under development

I was originally planning to save the latest news on the sequel to Hilary Mantel’s award-winning Wolf Hall until the Sunday news round-up but the news started stacking up enough that I thought it deserved a dedicated post.

The first bit of news was that the name of the sequel has been changed to Bring Up the Bodies and the previously announced title The Mirror and the Light (that I blogged about here) will be used for the third book. Somewhere in the back of my mind I thought that she had at least hinted that her Cromwell books might end up as a trilogy and now it seems to be the case.

News articles:
Hilary Mantel writes second sequel to Wolf Hall
Hilary Mantel novel Wolf Hall will be part of a trilogy
Hilary Mantel reveals plans for Wolf Hall trilogy

And the other interesting piece of news – which isn’t really all that surprising given the success of The Tudors – HBO and the BBC are developing a mini-series based on Wolf Hall! I’m pretty optimistic that they’ll do a really good job of this although the plans are for four episodes which will mean a lot will have to be cut from the book.

News articles:
BBC and HBO line up Wolf Hall drama
HBO And BBC Developing Miniseries Based On Wolf Hall
BBC, HBO Team for ‘Wolf Hall’ Miniseries

Sunday Short Takes

* The Middle Ages in colour – A lovely BBC video in honor of the opening of the British Library’s Royal Manuscripts exhibition that I blogged about previously

* FiveBooks Interviews > Thomas Penn on Henry VII – Another great interview from The Browser (and thankfully I already have three of the books he recommended, so I didn’t have to add too many things to my wishlist)

* Volunteers for the 2012 Season – Sudeley Castle is looking for help with some upcoming projects including the celebration of the 500th anniversary of Katherine Parr’s birth

* Rare tankard finally returns to Glastonbury Abbey – “A rare carved oak tankard, said to have been saved from King Henry VIII

Sunday Short Takes

Since I didn’t do a round-up last week, I didn’t get around to posting about the discovery of Sir Francis Drake’s final fleet and the possible resting place of Drake himself. Here are a few of the many news stories that ran about the discovery:

* Sir Francis Drake’s final fleet ‘discovered off the coast of Panama’

Sir Francis Drake’s body ‘close to being found off Panama’

Wrecks that promise to unlock the mystery of Francis Drake’s final resting place

And a few other news items that caught my eye last week:

* Brierfield treasure hunter finds Tudor ring

* Britain’s oldest family business opened when Henry VIII ruled

And finally, Medievalists.net visited the Making History exhibition at the McMullen Museum at Boston College (I mentioned it in a previous Sunday short takes) and recorded an interview with the museum’s director. Tudor history fans will recognize the portrait in the background!

Upcoming exhibitions and books

Here’s the round-up of some of the upcoming books and exhibitions for late October through November. Again, there are probably things I’ve missed but the Tudors are just too popular!

Books

* I have conflicting information on a new work on Catherine of Aragon by Patrick Williams… some have it out this past week, but it looks like June 1 of next year is the official release date. If anyone knows more, please let me know.

* A new work by Eric Ives entitled The Reformation Experience is out November 18 in the UK and August 1, 2012 in the US:

* Philip of Spain, King of England: The Forgotten Sovereign by Harry Kelsey will be released November 30 in the UK and January 31, 2012 in the US. I’m looking forward to this one since I don’t know a whole lot about Philip’s time as King consort to Mary I.

Exhibitions

* As I posted about yesterday, the British Library’s Royal Manuscripts exhibition opens November 11 and runs through March 13, 2012. Among the works exhibited will be Henry VIII’s Psalter and the Hours of Elizabeth the Queen (a work owned by, but not created for, Elizabeth of York).