Allison Weir, New York Times bestselling author of Innocent Traitor, will be at Davis-Kidd Booksellers at 6 p.m. Wednesday to talk and sign her new novel “The Lady Elizabeth.” Davis-Kidd is at 387 Perkins Ext.

Any book about the Tudors requires a bit of squinting when you turn the page. With Henry VIII, and later his daughter Mary, you never know when a head and neck will part or a heretic will burn.
It’s not a spoiler to anyone who knows a little British history or who follows the work of actresses Cate Blanchett or Helen Mirren that the red-headed, illegitimate title character of Alison Weir’s book “The Lady Elizabeth” eventually ascends to the throne of England. That takes a little of the edge off the intrigue because no matter how real the threat of the axe, we know the blade misses the future queen of England.
But that wasn’t the case for her mother, Anne Boleyn, which drew me to my first Tudor encounter this spring with “The Other Boleyn Girl” by British author Philippa Gregory.

 Anne Boleyn’s fate is well-known, but my history was fuzzy on what became of her brother George or sister Mary.

While in both books, most of the dialogue is imagined, the characters are based on real people. I’m much more comfortable in a historical novel genre then memoir because it’s clear from the beginning that while these are real people whose lives are well-documented, conversations and feelings are from the authors’ imaginations. Both authors take care to stay within the boundaries of what is believable and possible.
The characters dress, eat and behave as women of the 16th Century. They travel from castle to castle in carriage or by barge. Even the dreaded tower feels like a real place.
Gregory’s book is told through Mary Boleyn’s eyes, which gives us a glimpse into the inner workings of a girl in England’s court. Beneath the beautiful gowns and rustling corsets, girls are chattel to be bartered and bargained for their family’s advantage. Girls as young as 12 years old can be made mistress or wife. Mary is forced to leave her husband and become the King’s mistress until he becomes bored with her and she must step aside for her sister Anne, whose ambition is much higher than a mistress.
It was my cousin who put “The Other Boleyn Girl” into my hands with the warning that I “wouldn’t be able to put it down.” She was right. I recorded television shows, set aside housework and knitting to spend time with that conniving Anne Boleyn as she managed to get the first queen Katherine of Aragon removed so that Anne could take the thrown. All of her manipulation and ambition and inability to produce a son eventually caused Henry to turn on Anne and send her to the tower. The fate of her sister and brother are lesser known and drive the plot until the end.
I was barely done with the Boleyn siblings before I snatched up “The Lady Elizabeth,” eager for the next chapter of that child’s life. I hadn’t read Allison Weir’s other Tudor novel “Innocent Traitor” about Jane Grey but I was hoping that it would keep me equally entertained. It did.
 When I last left Elizabeth in “The Other Boleyn Girl,” she was in her mother’s hands as Anne Boleyn fought in vain for her life.
Weir’s book begins shortly after Elizabeth’s mother was decapitated and dequeened. She is told of her mother’s death by her half-sister Mary, the staunch Catholic, who loves her little sister but also despises her Protestant faith.
Both sisters live for years out of favor with the King who puts all his hopes in a son Edward VI, who was sired by Henry’s third wife, Jane Seymour who died shortly after childbirth.
Elizabeth is a precocious child whose intelligence is honed by master tutors. She lives most of her life in the country with a beloved governess Kat Astley who is like a mother to the girl. With the urging of his last wife Katherine Parr, Henry restores the legitimacy of his daughters for fear that if something happened to Edward, the throne would be taken by other relatives and not his heirs. After her father dies, Edward becomes King. Elizabeth moves into the home of Katherine Parr who remarried after Henry’s death to Admiral Thomas Seymour. Elizabeth engages in a dangerous affair while she lives with the couple, which nearly cost her the throne. Weir said there’s documentation of the affair although some of the details were never proven. A few years later, 15-year-old King Edward dies, which puts Elizabeth next in line to the throne after her sister Mary. Advisors constantly warn Queen Mary that her sister and those who believe in the Protestant faith are plotting against Mary, a Catholic, whose distrust of her sister grows stronger every year.
Mary takes a husband from Spain who brings with him the brutal tactics of the Spanish Inquisition. Heretics burn at the stake and Elizabeth and her servants are sent to the tower where they spend months being interrogated for treason. Her sister insists that she marry a Spaniard to ensure her loyalty but Elizabeth resists.
Weir’s masterful weaving of fact and fiction creates tension between the two sisters as Mary’s health worsens and Elizabeth’s ascension draws closer. Weir closes her story as all good novels do, leaving the reader wanting more.