Jessie Childs
Courting Disaster
Young & Damned & Fair: The Life and Tragedy of Catherine Howard at the Court of Henry VIII
By Gareth Russell
William Collins 480pp £25
When I was at a mixed boarding school in the countryside, one of the girls in my house pressed the back-door key into a bar of soap and had a copy made. She and her friends snuck off to drink, smoke and see the boys. They never got caught: where there’s a will – or perhaps just a thrill – there’s a way. I was reminded of this reading Gareth Russell’s biography of Henry VIII’s fifth wife, Catherine Howard, because she, too, had a spare key cut. It gave favoured young men access to the maidens’ chamber in the house of her father’s stepmother, where she grew up. They brought wine and strawberries and, at the hint of grandmother’s footsteps, squirrelled themselves away in a curtained gallery. This, apparently, was Catherine’s idea. For two years, she was in a relationship with Henry Manox, her music teacher. Then there was Francis Dereham, to whom she lost her virginity. They called each other husband and wife. He took it seriously; she didn’t. In 1539 Catherine, whose uncle was the powerful third Duke of Norfolk, was sent to court and enjoyed a flirtation with Thomas Culpeper, a gentleman of the Privy Chamber. Then she was spotted by Henry VIII. For the king, limping into his fifth decade, it was, Russell writes, ‘lust at first sight’. He discarded Anne of Cleves, who, among other things, he considered too old and not a virgin, and took Catherine as his trophy. The horror of Catherine’s life, which in this book, we are promised, ‘unfurls as if in real time’, was the slow collision of her two worlds.
Catherine’s sexual history has been raked over many times – this is the fourth biography of her in five years. The details are intimate and crude. We are aware of where Catherine was touched, the marks on her body and the noises that came from her bed. ‘I know her
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
Are iPhones ruining children's lives? A prominent American psychologist thinks so.
@tiffanyjenkins is not so sure:
Tiffany Jenkins - The Smartphone Pandemic
Tiffany Jenkins: The Smartphone Pandemic - The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an...
literaryreview.co.uk
India's 'festival of democracy', or general election, begins next month. Like every good festival, it looks likely to have its fair share of murders and arrests.
@OwenBennettJon probes the state of democracy in India:
Owen Bennett-Jones - New Delhi Confidential
Owen Bennett-Jones: New Delhi Confidential - The Incarcerations: BK-16 and the Search for Democracy in India by Alpa Shah
literaryreview.co.uk
Where is the world's newest narcostate and why is it thriving?
@AdamBrookesWord investigates Asia's meth mecca.
Adam Brookes - Meth Comes to Myanmar
Adam Brookes: Meth Comes to Myanmar - Narcotopia: In Search of the Asian Drug Cartel That Outwitted the CIA by Patrick Winn
literaryreview.co.uk