There are no secrets in here! (The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn - Robin Maxwell)

Member Name: i_am_joy

Product:	The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn - Robin Maxwell
Date:	04/07/09 (101 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: I think this would be a good book for someone looking to learn a little about Anne Boleyn

Disadvantages: No emotion within the diary entries, attempts to portray Anne Boleyn too kindly

I have a fascination with Henry VIII and his wives, like many people Anne Boleyn is a particular character from this period that I enjoy reading about as she is arguably the wife who attracts so many conspiracy theories and it's hard to make a decision about whether she was the villain of the era or a hard done by woman who was sacrificed on the whims of the men in her life.

When I saw The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn by Robin Maxwell in the library I instantly picked it up and added it to the pile I had ready to check out, I couldn't wait to start reading and begun as soon as I got home.

The story begins with a newly crowned Elizabeth I, within the first few pages she receives a visit from an elderly lady who gives her a journal her mother kept and eventually gave to this woman on the eve of her execution requesting that she should give it to Elizabeth when she feels the time is right. Whether it is the thought of her impending death (she is very, very old) or the damage the country sees Elizabeth doing to her reputation with the inappropriate relationship she is in with married Robert Dudley, but the woman goes to visit her and explains the time has come for her to read the thoughts of her much reviled mother.

When Elizabeth begins reading she has to do so with an open mind, being only three years old when her mother was beheaded she recalls a little love for the woman but over the years has had her mind and thoughts poisoned somewhat against her to the point that she now no longer thinks or her or speaks her name.

The book flips between pages of Anne's diary and the thoughts and actions of the young Queen Elizabeth as she slowly begins to understand that she was much loved by her mother, a fact that has been lost on her since she was a toddler and she also realises that her own struggles in life were not caused by Anne Boleyn but by her spiteful and semi-deranged father and his close circle of advisers.

The book is such a wonderful idea, well let me clarify that somewhat. This book would have been a wonderful idea had it been better thought out. I was looking forward to reading the private thoughts of this ill fated Queen whereas all this novel really does is rehash the old basic facts and tell the story in the first person in diary form. I am used to Jean Plaidy and Philippa Gregory weaving ambitious tales around true facts, The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn read too much like a text book for me to get any real enjoyment from.

I think most of us know the basic tale of Anne Boleyn and those of us, like me, who read extensively into her life are aware of many little historic titbits relating to her. The problem is this book didn't tell me anything new, whether as historical fact or historical fiction. As a diary I thought Anne's personality and thoughts should come through but everything she says is rather too generalised to really be able to get into her mind and understand the torment she went through after realising her cruel husband, the King, had fallen out of love with her. Everything was told with a clinical eye and this doesn't ring true for a feisty woman such as Anne Boleyn who was facing the fight of her life after delivering her husband of a baby girl rather than a boy, although as history tells us this 'girl' went on to become one of the greatest monarchs this country has ever known so her legacy surely lived on.

Another thing I despised about this novel is the bias the author showed when it came to portraying Anne as a kind and generous maid, loving to a fault and always thinking of others. Now, I know the medieval period is open to much speculation but I very much doubt whether Anne Boleyn was this kindly person with always a good word on her lips. In fact real diaries and correspondence from the time show that the opposite is in fact more likely with the Queen having a sharp tongue and ideas very much above her station, I believe she would have done anything to be Queen and had Henry not decided that the grass was greener with Jane Seymour think she would have held a rein of terror over the people of England for as long as they allowed her to.

Of course this is open to debate, I just didn't like the rosy way the woman was portrayed by Robin Maxwell as it didn't ring true in the slightest and in a way made a total mockery of the diary theme to the novel because surely such a kindly caring woman would have written with far more emotion that this book reveals. Even the diary entry written directly to her daughter just before her own execution read rather factually with barely a hint of the terror Anne Boleyn must have been feeling at her fast approaching death - the first Queen of England to ever have been publicly executed.

I was disappointed, very disappointed indeed. After reading the novel, and skimming many many pages of pointless drivel, I felt I knew nothing new about the life of Anne Boleyn or any of her peers. The incestuous relationship she supposedly undertook with her brother was glossed over within a couple of pages which was surprising as this was the main event that led to her death, rather than a 'normal' affair which probably would have resulted in her death sentence being commuted into lifetime servitude in a far away convent.

I would imagine that someone who doesn't know much about the life of this strange and badly done by woman would get more out of this book than I did, but if you know a fair amount about her as I do then you really will be wasting your time as there is nothing original in this novel and it's not even terribly well written.

You can buy a paperback copy of The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn from www.amazon.co.uk for around £5, although personally I would recommend you borrow a copy from the library just in case you are as disappointed as I was by the end of it.

Summary: I usually enjoy anything to do with this Queen, unfortunately this was a big disappointment.