The Other Boleyn Girl

Philippa Gregory's The Other Boleyn Girl opens in England in 1521, with Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon under strain because she has not produced a male heir. Thomas Boleyn, along with the Duke of Norfolk, who is his brother-in-law, plans to put Boleyn's youngest daughter, Mary, in the king's path as his mistress, though Mary is already married to the courtier William Carey. Her sister Anne, back from the French court not long before, and her brother George help prepare her for the king's attention, and Henry comes to favour Mary, who falls in love with him even though she is devoted to the queen. The affair strains her friendship with Catherine, particularly once Mary is pregnant by the king.

The novel is narrated by Mary and follows the years in which Henry works to end his marriage to Catherine and the court watches to see which family will hold his favour. It is a fictional account loosely based on the life of Mary Boleyn, of whom little is recorded, and it uses her position at court in the early 1520s to look at the annulment and at the pressure on the king to produce a son.

The Other Boleyn Girl was published in 2001 and was followed by a sequel, The Queen's Fool. Two films of the same name have been made from it.