An evening with Alison Weir

We're delighted to be welcoming acclaimed historian Alison Weir back to Chorleywood, where she'll be talking about her compelling new novel, THE BOLEYN SECRET.

Kate Carey is the daughter of Mary Boleyn. At the age of twelve, Kate attends her aunt, Queen Anne Boleyn, to the scaffold. Horrified by her grim end, and believing her innocent, she conceives a deep hatred for King Henry VIII, who sent his wife to a terrible death.

Kate spends much of her young life as a companion to the Princess Elizabeth, Henry and Anne's daughter. The two become close, and when Kate marries Sir Francis Knollys for love, Elizabeth is jealous.

As time passes, Kate begins to sense that there is a secret associated with her own background. Only when her mother is on her deathbed does she find out the awful truth.

It is a secret that will follow Kate throughout her life, as she flees religious persecution with her husband and lives abroad in fear, only returning home when Elizabeth becomes queen. But the bond between the Boleyn cousins will never be the same again...