Henry: Virtuous Prince

click here for more details, find new or used items	David Starkey Our price £5.04 (£8.99) New from £0.01 Used from £0.01 Pages: 400 (Paperback) ISBN: 0007247729 Pub: Harper Perennial Pub date: 2009-03-19 Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 83993

Reader Reviews:

A good introduction. (0/0 people found this helpful)

Having never read David Starkey before, was wondering if this would be another dry well padded biography, I was suprised very readable, not too in depth, but gives you an understanding of Henry's early life, and the clues are there as to the future, although we all know what the adult Henry was like. Would recommend as an introduction to Henry the Eighth, the man.

Very good, but should have been better. (0/0 people found this helpful)

As the first book of Starkey's I've ever read I didn't really have any expectations beforehand, thus my review can claim to be, relatively, unbiased.

I liked the book and discovered many little nuances about Henry VIII that I didn't know before. Starkey writes as he appears on television: leading/rhetorical questions, punchy sentences, a historian with a personality. Is this good for a book? (see what I did there?) Well yes, and no.

As mentioned in a previous review, Starkey is terribly lazy with detail, forcing you to flip backwards and forwards to find if the Suffolk he is suddenly mentioning is indeed the Charles Brandon he spake about earlier, etc.

Yet the book is still interesting and easy to read, if you don't mind not knowing the minor characters that Starkey picks up and drops in the blink of an eye.

The biggest anti-climax, however, is saved for the end. The book abruptly ends without warning, and you're left wondering what happened. I can only presume that there is a follow up book?

With all of that in mind, I enjoyed it enough to read it twice and there with undoubtedly be a third. But is it ground-breaking piece of literary work about Henry VIII that no historian could do without? Not really, but it's worth a read if you have the time.

Very readable biography of the early Henry VIII (1/2 people found this helpful)

Scholarly historical biography can get fairly dry, but this book is very readable. Despite the lack of detailed source materials, there is sufficient information to keep the story of his childhood and youth going. There are also tantilizing hints of the future. (It is partly Thomas More who teaches the young Henry how powerful he is, and that he can do what he wants.) I can't wait to read the next volume.

A good balance between the seventh and the eighth (0/0 people found this helpful)

This is an informative and intriguing book written in a typical David Starkey style. Amusing at times, the information in this book is very accessible for the amateur historian interested in this subject area.

The book follows the latter part of King Henry VII's reign and the early part of King Henry VIII's reign (up to his initial association with Thomas More in his early twenties). All aspects of family and court life are covered which helped to shape the young prince. A lot of information is given about Henry VII which I particularly found useful as I was previously unfamiliar with the Monarch.

There was perhaps a little too much emphasis on the various financial bonds which tied nobleman to monarch for my liking and the intricately linked family connections at the beginning of the book was difficult to get the head round.

However, I am glad I have read this book and would recommend it to others interested in this period who know little about it! I certainly want to learn more about Henry VII and his struggles as he battled for the English Crown.

Interesting but mainly irritating (4/6 people found this helpful)

I usually do enjoy Starkey's work, but the style and presentation here seems to be "history as written by tabloid journalist".
Short punchy paragraphs, sections and chapters which are occasionally scholarly, but often little more than a string of interesting anectodes which seem to add little to the sum of human knowledge about his subject, He does seem very concerned that the reader is incapable of sustaining concentration over anything more than two or three pages.
Most irritating of all though is the knowing question marks at the end of many sections:
"Would they fight together against the upstart Tudors?"

"Wisdom, love or hunting...Which would it be?"

Did Henry reflect a little wryly that he could not even initiate his coronation on his own authority?"

I found myself waiting for each "section question" and every time seeing the image of Dr Starkey leaning towards the camera, perhaps knowingly tapping the side of his nose and winking while I scream back..."That's not history its pure speculation!"

..and that's probably my problem with the book, its a telly script re-packaged as a book.

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