Books
The Boleyn Secret
A Boleyn woman is no stranger to secrets...
Kate Carey is the daughter of Mary Boleyn. At the age of twelve, Kate attends her aunt, Queen Anne Boleyn, to the scaffold. Horrified by her grim end, and believing her innocent, she conceives a deep hatred for King Henry VIII, who sent his wife to a terrible death.
Kate spends much of her young life as a companion to the Princess Elizabeth, Henry and Anne's daughter. The two become close, and when Kate marries Sir Francis Knollys for love, Elizabeth is jealous.
As time passes, Kate begins to sense that there is a secret associated with her own background. Only when her mother is on her deathbed does she find out the awful truth.
It is a secret that will follow Kate throughout her life, as she flees religious persecution with her husband and lives abroad in fear, only returning home when Elizabeth becomes queen. But the bond between the Boleyn cousins will never be the same again...
‘In this vivid and utterly addictive novel, Alison Weir brings to life a fascinating woman who lived at the heart of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I’s courts, but who has remained in the shadows for almost 500 years. In so doing, she gives us a compelling heroine and breathes new life into one of the most famous periods in English history. The immaculate period details and compelling drama transport the reader to the dazzling, often deadly world of the Tudors. Simply unmissable’
(Dr Tracy Borman, author of The House of Boleyn)
‘It's a rare gift for an author to be able to transport their readers to times past, but Alison Weir does so with ease. With each page of The Boleyn Secret, I felt as though I were eavesdropping on the scandalous world of the Tudors, and experiencing their world as they would have done. Full of tension, passion, jealousy and heartbreak, The Boleyn Secret is an unputdownable tale of one who might've been closer to the heart of the Tudor court than was ever acknowledged. When it comes to historical fiction, Alison Weir is unbeatable.’ (Nicola Tallis, author of Young Elizabeth)
Beautifully written, full of emotion. In telling the vivid, moving story of Katherine Carey, Alison Weir takes you to a front seat at the Tudor court, glittering, treacherous, terrifying. Katherine sees her aunt Anne Boleyn executed, serves her cousin, Elizabeth, and is drawn into the Tudor world of secrets. Fascinating. (Kate Williams (author of Regina: A New History of Women and Power)
With her extraordinary breadth of knowledge and scrupulous attention to detail, Alison Weir has excavated, from the Tudor records, the unsung story of a remarkable woman who had a ring-side seat to some of the most precarious and pivotal passages of history. Katherine Carey learned young how to negotiate the knife-edge of court, developing deep loyalties and cautious allegiances. She had fifteen pregnancies, had to flee England and live as a fugitive for a time and carried a momentous and dangerous secret about her origins for her entire life. Her story is as fascinating as it is gripping. (Elizabeth Fremantle, author of Disbedient)
“Bringing us into sixteenth-century England from a fresh, lively angle, Weir gives voice to the long-standing historical rumors about Kate’s origins and how her self- perception changes after she learns the truth. With abundant domestic and social details, Weir illustrates Kate’s emotional growth as wife and mother alongside her gradual turn to Protestantism, which proves dangerous after Mary I becomes queen. Kate’s husband Francis, her supportive stepfather Will, and her smart, imperious cousin Elizabeth are especially vivid characters in this engaging saga about a family-oriented woman adjusting to an illustrious yet unwanted legacy.” (Booklist)
Out on 29th October 2026 in the UK, my latest e-short, a companion to The Boleyn Secret...
A spine-tingling Tudor ghost story from Alison Weir, the Sunday Times bestselling author of the Six Tudor Queens series.
"I sit there frozen, unable to move, wondering if she will reappear. Either the house really is haunted, or I'm seeing things that aren't there . . ."
Oxfordshire, the present day. Lucy is grieving for the loss of her mother. In the depths of her heartbreak, she is invited to stay with her aunt, the custodian of a grand historic house.
Soon, Lucy becomes entangled in the mysteries of the beautiful but eerie Greys Court. Nobody lives here any more, except her aunt. But there are footprints in the dust. An inexplicable scent of roses. And visions of a weeping woman in black silk.
Preliminary jacket designs, and holding UK jacket:
