{"id":29537,"date":"2025-09-18T11:48:28","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T11:48:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/29537\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T11:48:28","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T11:48:28","slug":"lots-of-books-scrabble-a-pack-of-cards-and-james-norton-oh-and-some-wine-alison-weirs-consuming-passions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/29537\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Lots of books, Scrabble, a pack of cards and James Norton. Oh, and some wine\u2019: Alison Weir\u2019s consuming passions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alison Weir is potentially the nicest woman in publishing, but she is certainly the biggest-selling female historian in the UK (since records began in 1997). The sheer volume of her output is impressive in itself, with 32 titles to her name \u2014 a mixture of non-fiction and historical fiction. At 74, she is showing no signs of slowing down: today is the publication date of her latest offering, Queens at War<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Born Alison Matthews in 1951, the author was brought up in Westminster, London. She was educated at the City of London School for Girls, North Western Polytechnic and then at the University of North London where she gained her teaching qualifications (History, of course). She later gave this up due to her dislike for the \u2018modern teaching methods\u2019 her school was employing and went on to work in the civil service, writing in her spare time.<\/p>\n

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Her parents had split up \u2018rather acrimoniously\u2019 by this point, which came as a \u2018bolt out of the blue\u2019 for Alison. \u2018Things went wrong,\u2019 she recalls. \u2018They\u2019d had a very happy marriage.\u2019 Her mother was delighted when she decided to become an author (\u2018No one was more thrilled when I got into print\u2019). Her father, less so. \u2018He was really into ancient history,\u2019 the author says. \u2018He wasn’t that keen on medieval Tudor history and we didn’t have an easy relationship.\u2019<\/p>\n

It was in 1971 that she met her husband, Rankin, \u2018an absolute diamond\u2019 at a Battle of Britain Dance at Kensington Town Hall. Her mother took her, unwillingly: \u2018I\u2019m not going to be seen dead ballroom dancing, aged 20,\u2019 Alison thought at the time. The pair went on to have two children together \u2014 a son and a daughter \u2014 and moved around before settling in Surrey. Sadly, Rankin passed away two years ago. \u2018We had 52 wonderful years together. He was a civil servant, who did very well, but he actually gave up work to support [my writing career, later on], because we had a son who had special needs and needed support,\u2019 Alison says, her grief for him still palpable.<\/p>\n

Celebrating 50 years with my husband Rankin today – he’s the best thing that ever happened to me. pic.twitter.com\/zHR3X61e0BSeptember 11, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n

It was in 1989 that her first book, Britain\u2019s Royal Families, was published. \u2018I\u2019m still pinching myself,\u2019 she says. She had spent 22 years working on it, and just shy of 20 working on another, only to have it consistently rejected for being too long. \u2018I got so demoralised, I didn\u2019t write or finish anything for a long time after that,\u2019 she says. It was later published in 1991, becoming her second book (The Six Wives of Henry VIII). Her biographies of Katherine Swynford, Isabella of France, Elizabeth of York, Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Princes in the Tower followed \u2014 many of these written while she was running a school for children with learning difficulties.<\/p>\n

Then came fiction. Alison has written wildly popular novels centring around the Medieval English Queens, Henry VIII and each of his wives. In fact, it was Katherine of Aragon who kickstarted her love for history at the age of 14. \u2018My mother marched me into a library and said: \u201cGet a book\u201d,\u2019 Alison recalls. \u2018I saw this very lurid book with a very lurid jacket called Henry\u2019s Golden Queen and I devoured it in two days. Of course, it was quite sexy for its time, and I\u2019d never read a book like that before.\u2019<\/p>\n

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\"An\n<\/p>\n

Katharine of Aragon was King Henry VIII’s first wife. They married on June 11, 1509 and their marriage was annulled May 23, 1533. <\/p>\n

(Image credit: The Print Collector\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

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\"Alison\n<\/p>\n

Alison Weir speaking at the Hay Festival.<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Keith Morris\/Alamy)<\/p>\n

\u2018I thought, did they really go on like that in those days? So I rushed off to the school library when I was next at school, to the history books, to find out the truth. And yes they really did go on like that.\u2019<\/p>\n

Exquisite houses, the beauty of Nature, and how to get the most from your life, straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n

It is the Tudor period that truly holds her heart, as well as her carnal imagination, and as Alison\u2019s career progressed so did her book titles. The rather plainly named Britain\u2019s Royal Families gave way to more titillating titles such as Isabella: She-Wolf of France, Queen of England; Katherine Swynford: The Story of John of Gaunt and his Scandalous Duchess; and, my personal favourite, Mary Boleyn: The Great and Infamous Whore.<\/p>\n

However, being a writer in the popular history genre does not come without its critics: namely academics, of which Alison herself is one. The historian Diarmaid MacCulloch, in one book review, chastised Weir: \u2018Tudor England is more than royal wardrobe lists, palaces and sexual intrigue\u2019. However, the author\u2019s book-sales tell a different story, and Kathryn Hughes wrote in The Guardian in 2005 that \u2018to describe her as a popular historian would be to state a literal truth \u2014 her chunky explorations of Britain’s early modern past sell in the kind of multiples that others can only dream of\u2019.<\/p>\n

Who is your hero, when it comes to the written word?<\/p>\n

My favourite author of all time is Norah Lofts, she died in the 80s, but I\u2019ve got all 63 of her books, and I find them absolutely inspirational, and I was instrumental in getting some of them back into print.<\/p>\n

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\"Norah\n<\/p>\n

The author Norah Lofts in Zurich 1957.<\/p>\n

(Image credit: RDB\/ullstein bild\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

What\u2019s an exhibition that has really impressed you?<\/p>\n

The David Bowie exhibition at the V&A Museum. It was absolutely incredible. I went with my daughter, she had to drag me out.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the last thing of note you bought yourself?<\/p>\n

A very nice dress from Monsoon.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your favourite painting?<\/p>\n

I think Giovanni Bellini\u2019s The Portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan, which is in the National Gallery. I love that, but I also love the paintings of Holbein, especially his portraits, so it’s hard to have a definitive favourite painting. I could say I love the one of Anne Boleyn in the National Portrait Gallery, but it’s not great art. It’s more what it evokes for me.<\/p>\n

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\"The\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Photo 12\/Universal Images Group\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Which possession would you never sell?<\/p>\n

My wedding and engagement rings, they\u2019re the most important things.<\/p>\n

A book you\u2019ve found inspiring<\/p>\n

Antonia Fraser’s Mary Queen of Scots, the biography, because that came out when I was 18, and it was a total inspiration. I wanted to be the new Antonia Fraser, and I still have every respect for her \u2014 she’s a great historian and a very nice lady.<\/p>\n

What music do you work to?<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t work to music these days \u2014 it\u2019s too much of a distraction \u2014 but when I\u2019m dealing with emails I put my playlist on, which I spend a lot of time curating, because I\u2019m crazy about music. John Lennon, the [Rolling] Stones, The Killers, ABBA, Creedence Clearwater Revival, David Bowie, Echo and the Bunnymen, Eric Clapton, the Electric Light Orchestra \u2014 that\u2019s just a few examples. There\u2019s 11,084 songs on this list\u2026<\/p>\n

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\"Four\n<\/p>\n

Echo and the Bunnymen, outside St Ann’s Church in Dublin 1982.<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Steve Rapport\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

What was the last podcast you listened to?<\/p>\n

None. I\u2019ve never listened to any, not even The Rest is History \u2014 I\u2019ve done them but I haven\u2019t listened.<\/p>\n

Who would play you in a film of your life?<\/p>\n

Rebecca Fleming, I like her, but she probably wouldn\u2019t look like me at all, but a good actor can play anyone.<\/p>\n

What would you take with you to a desert island?<\/p>\n

Lots of books, Scrabble, a pack of cards and James Norton. Oh, and some wine.<\/p>\n

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\"James\n<\/p>\n

James Norton in June, at Burlington House in London.<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Neil Mockford\/WireImage\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

What gets you up in the morning?<\/p>\n

All I\u2019ve got to do, but I do like a long lazy lie-in at the weekend.<\/p>\n

Do you collect anything?<\/p>\n

Yes, I collect a lot of books, I collect jigsaw puzzles \u2014 I like those, but I don’t have time for them \u2014 I collect jewelry: I’m an absolute hoarder. And I collect the music of people I really like. I have a lot of CDs.<\/p>\n

A hotel you could go back and back to<\/p>\n

Ch\u00e2teau de Saint Paterne, near Alen\u00e7on in Normandy, France. My daughter works for Mr & Mrs Smith, so she visits a lot of nice hotels and she recommended it. We\u2019ve been back several times, I couldn\u2019t praise it highly enough. That would be my go-to place.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the most memorable meal you\u2019ve ever had?<\/p>\n

It was at the Lords Of The Manor Hotel in Upper Slaughter in the Cotswolds, and it’s absolutely superb, and also very expensive. We’ve had family occasions there to celebrate something really special, like my daughter’s 40th. The whole thing is a wonderful experience.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the best present you\u2019ve ever received?<\/p>\n

Something that my son chose, a lamp for our 25th wedding anniversary.<\/p>\n

Alison Weir\u2019s latest book, \u2018Queens at War’<\/a>, is on sale now. Alison will be speaking at Stratford Literary Festival, which runs from October 30\u2013November 2. Book tickets and find out more information on their website.<\/a><\/p>\n