A wide variety of new books about royalty will be coming our way next month, including these:
Anne Boleyn: Fatal Attractions by G. W. Bernard. Argues that the allegations of Anne Boleyn's adultery might have been close to the truth.
Edward II by Seymour Phillips. Debunks the conventional view that England's Edward II was a worthless king.
Genghis Khan by James Chambers. Biography of the 13th century Mongolian emperor.
The Queen of Jhansi by Mahasweta Devi, translated by Sagaree and Mandira Sengupta. Lakshmibai, a young Indian queen, led her troops against the British in the uprising of 1857 and died on the battlefield. This book combines biography with fiction.
Maximilian, Mexico, and the Invention of Empire by Kristine Ibsen. Napoleon III installed an Austrian archduke as emperor of Mexico. Resistance to the empire helped consolidate Mexican identity.
The Confessions of Catherine de Medici by C. W. Gortner. In this novel, the ruthless French queen tells her own story.
Raiders From the North: Empire of the Moghul by Alex Rutherford. Novel about the emperor Babur (1483-1530), founder of India's Mughal empire.
As always, publication dates are subject to change. I'll publish the full list of new royalty books on the Royal Books page on May 1.
If I could read only one of the books listed above, it would definitely be the one about Anne Boleyn. I find Tudor books hard to resist, and this one seems to take a new approach to Henry VIII's most-discussed wife. Which book would you choose?
I've already bought the Edward II book! I'm also curious to read the Anne Boleyn book, though.
I'm really looking forward to Gortner's book on Catherine de Medici.