Audiobook15 hours
Young and Damned and Fair: The Life of Catherine Howard, Fifth Wife of King Henry VIII
Written by Gareth Russell
Narrated by Jenny Funnell
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
Written with an exciting combination of narrative flair and historical authority, this biography of Henry VIII’s fifth wife, Catherine Howard, is “a stunning achievement” (The Sunday Times, London), and “a masterly work of Tudor history that is engrossing, sympathetic, suspenseful, and illuminating” (Charlotte Gordon, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography).
On the morning of July 28, 1540, a teenager named Catherine Howard began her reign as queen of an England simmering with rebellion and terrifying uncertainty. Sixteen months later, she would follow her cousin Anne Boleyn to the scaffold, having been convicted of adultery and high treason.
The broad outlines of Catherine’s career might be familiar, but her story up until now has been incomplete. Unlike previous biographies, which portray her as a naïve victim of an ambitious family, Gareth Russell’s “excellent account puts the oft-ignored Catherine in her proper historical context” (Daily Mail, London) and sheds new light on her rise and downfall by showing her in her context, a milieu that includes the aristocrats and, most critically, the servants who surrounded her and who, in the end, conspired against her. By illuminating Catherine’s entwined upstairs/downstairs world as well as societal tensions beyond the palace walls, Russell offers a fascinating portrayal of court life in the sixteenth century and a fresh analysis of the forces beyond Catherine’s control that led to her execution.
Including a forgotten text of Catherine’s confession in her own words, color illustrations, family tree, map, and extensive notes, Young and Damned and Fair is “a gripping account of a young woman’s future destroyed by forces beyond her control…an important and timely book” (Amanda Foreman, author of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire and A World on Fire). This account changes our understanding of one of history’s most famous women while telling the compelling and very human story of complex individuals attempting to survive in a dangerous age.
On the morning of July 28, 1540, a teenager named Catherine Howard began her reign as queen of an England simmering with rebellion and terrifying uncertainty. Sixteen months later, she would follow her cousin Anne Boleyn to the scaffold, having been convicted of adultery and high treason.
The broad outlines of Catherine’s career might be familiar, but her story up until now has been incomplete. Unlike previous biographies, which portray her as a naïve victim of an ambitious family, Gareth Russell’s “excellent account puts the oft-ignored Catherine in her proper historical context” (Daily Mail, London) and sheds new light on her rise and downfall by showing her in her context, a milieu that includes the aristocrats and, most critically, the servants who surrounded her and who, in the end, conspired against her. By illuminating Catherine’s entwined upstairs/downstairs world as well as societal tensions beyond the palace walls, Russell offers a fascinating portrayal of court life in the sixteenth century and a fresh analysis of the forces beyond Catherine’s control that led to her execution.
Including a forgotten text of Catherine’s confession in her own words, color illustrations, family tree, map, and extensive notes, Young and Damned and Fair is “a gripping account of a young woman’s future destroyed by forces beyond her control…an important and timely book” (Amanda Foreman, author of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire and A World on Fire). This account changes our understanding of one of history’s most famous women while telling the compelling and very human story of complex individuals attempting to survive in a dangerous age.
Author
Gareth Russell
Educated at Oxford University and Queen’s University, Belfast, Gareth Russell is a historian, novelist, and playwright. He is the author of several books, including The Palace, The Ship of Dreams, Young and Damned and Fair, The Emperors, and Do Let’s Have Another Drink. He lives in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
More audiobooks from Gareth Russell
The Palace: From the Tudors to the Windsors, 500 Years of British History at Hampton Court Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Do Let's Have Another Drink!: The Dry Wit and Fizzy Life of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Ship of Dreams: The Sinking of the Titanic and the End of the Edwardian Era Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to Young and Damned and Fair
Related audiobooks
Mary Boleyn: The Great and Infamous Whore Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Queen: The Life & Tragedy of the Prince Regent's Daughter Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great Harry: A Biography of Henry VIII Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Royal Bastards: Illegitimate Children of the British Royal Family Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Katherine Swynford Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tudor: Passion. Manipulation. Murder. The Story of England's Most Notorious Royal Family Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Elizabeth of York Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Queens of the Crusades: Eleanor of Aquitaine and her Successors Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Children of Henry VIII Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Six Wives of Henry VIII Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Betrayal of Mary, Queen of Scots: Elizabeth I and Her Greatest Rival Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The King's Grave: The Discovery of Richard III's Lost Burial Place and the Clues It Holds Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Queens of the Conquest Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ladies-in-Waiting: Women Who Served Anne Boleyn Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Richard III: The Self-Made King Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blood Sisters: The Women Behind the Wars of the Roses Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Scandalous Lady W: An Eighteenth-Century Tale of Sex, Scandal and Divorce Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The House of Dudley: A New History of Tudor England Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Final Year of Anne Boleyn Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Duchess Countess Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Prince Who Would Be King: The Life and Death of Henry Stuart Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lancaster and York Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Matilda: Empress, Queen, Warrior Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House of Beaufort: The Bastard Line that Captured the Crown Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Serving Victoria: Life in the Royal Household Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Queen Victoria's Mysterious Daughter: A Biography of Princess Louise Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Henrietta Maria: The Warrior Queen Who Divided a Nation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To Catch A King: Charles II's Great Escape Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Historical Biographies For You
The Devil and Harper Lee Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel: Genius, Power, and Deception on the Eve of World War I Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Professor and The Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Moveable Feast: The Restored Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Charlie Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Benjamin Franklin: An American Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Shakespeare Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leonardo da Vinci Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Moveable Feast Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Up From Slavery Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Greatest Beer Run Ever: A Memoir of Friendship, Loyalty, and War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Diary of Anne Frank Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lincoln Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Benjamin Franklin Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Benjamin Franklin: Autobiography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Eliza Hamilton: The Extraordinary Life and Times of the Wife of Alexander Hamilton Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lives of the Wives: Five Literary Marriages Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ben & Me: In Search of a Founder's Formula for a Long and Useful Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anne Frank Remembered Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Van Gogh: The Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A. Lincoln: A Biography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Young and Damned and Fair
Rating: 4.54054054054054 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
37 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Brilliantly researched and reads beautifully. I definitely recommend this book.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5This is what happens when there aren't alot of facts and you want to write a book about someone. I was expecting a book about Catherine Howard, the 5th wife of Henry VIII. What i read was a book full of trying to debunk every other detail and a little bit of Catherine thrown in there. If you believe the author, nothing you've always heard about the court has been correctly conveyed to us.