Fantastic story telling and beautifully narrated.

Wow, this book just flew by. Intriguing, exciting and so well researched.
To be afforded a different angle on a story we all think we know was such a gift. I found it so relevant and fresh. Thank you.

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Phenomenal

What an amazing book! I’ve read and listened to MANY accounts of this tale of time between Henry and Anne & none of them have told it like this. Honestly it felt like I was being told a story that they are trying to convince me is true, but I believed them from the get go. I have the physical copy as well and if you want your sources let me tell you they are sited! At least 100 pages of sources & appendix’s to refer too. Well worth the listen, the narrator done a FANTASTIC job, of keeping the listener interested, she has the perfect voice for audiobooks.

I hope these two amazing historians join forces again.

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Who are these ‘Berlins’?

A compelling and interesting read with lots of nuggets of information I hadn’t heard before. It’s generally well read, with the glaring exception of the narrator’s choice to pronounce Boleyn as Berlin. I’ve never heard this before and it grated on me a good deal. Is there a school of thought that that is how we’re supposed to pronounce it? Or is the reader the only person in England who doesn’t know how to pronounce this infamous name? Bizarre.

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"These bloody times"

In this phrase from his reflective poem written in prison in the year of Anne Boleyn’s execution, Sir Thomas Wyatt encapsulated the savagery of Henry Vlll’s reign.

In all of English history this period must be the most often chosen by academic researchers and by fiction writers . But what makes Hunting the Falcon such a tremendous addition to the existing catalogue is the authors’ use of recently uncovered sources, particularly in French, and the depth of their analysis of the royal courtship and marriage, not just in personal terms, but also in their detailed political contexts. Refreshingly real, Anne Boleyn is first portrayed as an highly intelligent young demoiselle in the opulent court of Queen Claude wife of Francis I of France. A description of her move to England and the six years of Henry’s courtship of her follows. So entrenched in French court ways was she and so deeply had she embedded herself in affairs of state, that after three brief years of her marriage during which she failed to give the King the son he craved, Henry tired of her. He turned to gentle, modest Jane Seymour and shockingly in 1536 he sanctioned Anne’s execution.

Both detailed and clear is the authors’ analysis of Henry’s fraught and politically complex relationship with Rome and France as he struggled to free himself from his 20 year marriage to Catherine of Aragon at the same time as maintaining existing alliances and forging new ones. Even before the time Anne and Henry finally married, the seeds of her downfall had been sown. Despite the cascade of outrageously princely gifts of goods and lands showered on the woman with whom he was besotted, Henry realised she was threatening his own control of affairs and causing dissension. The English court became a fearful place of plots real and imagined, conspiracies, spies and informers as Henry became increasingly suspicious and violent. It was a place where no-one was safe.

The Epilogue provides an excellent exploration of Henry’s deteriorating body and mind, almost certainly exacerbated by a near fatal fall from his horse early in the marriage. He must have known that the charges against Anne and against the host of others he similarly condemned were fabricated, but his monstrous need for absolute control enabled him to have them executed with apparent equanimity.

No wonder Wyatt wrote in the same poem that ‘the times have broken my heart’.

Stephanie Racine’s narration is outstanding. She reads with admirably subtle expression and sails through the French quotations (of which there are a great number) with aplomb – a rare feat in narrators!

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Hunting the falcon

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was jam-packed with information and delivered beautifully
I was amazed at all the details I wasn’t aware of , the research is incredible. I always thought I knew Anne’s story pretty well but was pleasantly surprised.

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Excellent take on a person we think we know

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Having read and watched a lot about Anne Boleyn, I wasn’t sure what I would learn about her, but I was wrong.


A political context to Anne’s downfall has often been suggested, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen it so well explained before. I think it would have been an interesting addition to look into Cromwell’s own motives a bit more for getting Anne and the men out of the way, to look at what I think of as the ‘Wolf Hall theory’, ie that Cromwell might have wanted to destroy Anne and the men in revenge for the loss of his dear Thomas Wolsey in addition to his desire to do what Henry wanted, as I believe is likely, but I’m sure this would be difficult to prove. I’d also like to have seen a bit more questioning of Henry’s opinions on the charges against Anne and the men. I don’t believe for a moment Henry ever thought the charges were true. I think he believed what he wanted to believe because he wanted Anne not only out of his life, but out of existence.

Those minor observations said, my only real objection to this, the audiobook, is the narrator. It might have been helpful if she’d done a bit of research to find out how to pronounce names. Her pronunciation of Boleyn as ‘Berlin’ throughout the book soon becomes grating. ‘Bullen’ would have been close because it’s possible it is how the name was spelt at the time, allowing for the non standardisation of spelling and how people heard and pronounced names, but ‘Berlin’ is just wrong, as is the pronunciation of Paulet as ‘Powlet’. These things could have been put right, but I have to admit they don’t spoil the enjoyment of an excellent book.

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Great book, irritating narration

The book itself is excellent. The research is very thorough. However the narrator, whilst clear for the most part, persists in pronouncing 'Boleyn' as 'Berlin' - quite pointedly, almost deliberately. It starts to grate after a while and by the end of the book, it drove me up the wall and ended up spoiling it for me.

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Berlin?

Great book. Hugely enjoyable but really struggled with the narrator repeatedly pronouncing Boleyn as Berlin!!

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Enjoyable listening

Great narration and an enjoyable listen. I devoured this in a few days (whilst getting on with chores)! Some of the facts you will recognise from other books on Tudor history. This book will give you another viewpoint to some of the details you think you know! Recommended reading if you love Tudor history ⭐️

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Enthralling

I plough through some history books but this one flew by.
Beautifully narrated and meticulously researched the story was so compelling I finished it in days.
Fantastic value for money.

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