Wendy Holden has found a fresh take on the familiar Anne Boleyn story in The Queen’s Painter and it’s an absorbing, entertaining and fun read. Basically it’s revenge drama as three of Anne’s supporters seek a way to make Thomas Cromwell pay for organising her death. Young German painter Hans Holbein arrives at the English court hoping to make his fortune as an artist and also to see again the teenage girl he met in France. That girl is now Queen Anne, her husband Henry VIII. What follows is an inventive plot organised by poet and diplomat Thomas Wyatt, Holbein and Anne’s serving woman Jennet to bring about the downfall of Cromwell. Cromwell, however, proves almost indestructable. Observations of the Tudor court are familiar from the novels of Philippa Gregory, CJ Sansom etc, as are many of the real characters, but what makes this novel so unusual is the voice of Hans Holbein. At heart, this is the story of Holbein’s life, some of it told in flashback, and of his profession as an artist negotiating the difficulties and subtleties of court diplomacy. Painting techniques, completed works, subjects, rival artists and his works portraying the royal court. Holbein was famed for painting true portraits of his subjects and Holden takes this fact and has enormous fun with it. Don’t miss the author’s ‘Acknowledgements’ at the end where she explains her lifelong fascination with Tudor life and Holbein’s portraits.
So this is a novel portraying a historically famous period in British history featuring possibly our most famous, or infamous, queen. It is a revenge mystery, and is also funny and clever. Hans’ fascination with Anne Boleyn takes on a supernatural element as her ghost pops up every now and then with pertinent, wry and witty comments that add colour to the scene and spur Hans on towards revenge.
Once I finished reading, I revisited Holbein’s paintings and particularly ‘The Ambassadors’ which features at the beginning of the novel as Holbein’s portrait-that-was-not-a-portrait of Anne.
Thoroughly enjoyable. I’ve read Wendy Holden since her first romantic comedy in 1999, Simply Divine, and have never since been disappointed.

Read my reviews of these other novels by Wendy Holden:-
THE DUCHESS
THE PRINCESS

If you like this, try:-
‘Dissolution’ by CJ Sansom #1SHARDLAKE
‘The House of Seymour’ by Joanna Hickson
‘The Royal Rebel’ by Elizabeth Chadwick#1JEANETTEOFKENT

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE QUEEN’S PAINTER by Wendy Holden @Wendy_Holden https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-9WS via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-