📖 Book Review ~ The Queen’s Painter by Wendy Holden

Headline 
18 June 2026

Thanks to the publisher for the invitation to read this book

 

When the brilliant young Holbein arrives at the Tudor court, Anne Boleyn is among his first patrons. As she rises to the top, Hans rises with her. Courtiers clamour for his portraits of life-like accuracy; pictures which tell the truth about their subjects.

When his beloved Anne is beheaded on false evidence, Hans is heartbroken and enraged. And he's not alone. Poet and diplomat Thomas Wyatt is agonised at his own unwitting part in her tragedy. He and Hans join forces and vow revenge on the person they blame for Anne's downfall: Thomas Cromwell, the king's ruthless chief minister.

But what can a poet and painter do against the most powerful man in England? The answer comes when Henry VIII seeks a fourth wife. Cromwell turns to Holbein and Wyatt, his trusted artist and envoy, to travel across Europe to find and paint a new bride. Cromwell's position depends on a portrait of someone young and beautiful, painted with Hans' trademark truth. Anything less could bring the whole court crashing down.

It's the opportunity they've been waiting for...

📖  My Review..

Hans Holbein is the celebrated German painter right at the heart of the Tudor court. His clever portraiture depicts the great and the not so good of Tudor England but it is his connection to Anne Boleyn, and his search for vengeance, following her death, which features strongly in this story. 

Devastated at the callous obliterating of Anne Boleyn, Holbein joins forces with the poet Thomas Wyatt to take revenge on the one person they hold entirely responsible for Anne’s devastating downfall; namely the King’s henchman, Thomas Cromwell. Two years after Anne’s death, Henry VIII now seeks to replace Jane Seymour, so the royal families of Europe start to dread the envoy who comes in search of a potential bride for the now infamous King of England, who callously replaces lost wives.

The Queen’s Painter is a different slant on the usual Tudor court intrigue and I enjoyed learning more about Holbein and the background to some of his famous paintings. The story flows well and I found moving between European courts interesting particularly the imagined background to the famous portrait of Christina of Denmark, Duchess of Milan, once on Henry VIII’s list as a potential bride, who bravely said she would only consider marrying Henry VIII if she had two heads.

Wrecking revenge on Thomas Cromwell was never going to be straightforward and this is a clever interpretation of using art to gain the upper hand. The story is imaginative, well described and with an authentic feeling of its time and place in history. Tudor England with all its myriad intrigues comes alive and revenge, when it comes, is all the sweeter for being unexpected.

About the Author

Number one bestselling author Wendy Holden has written ten consecutive Sunday Times Top Ten bestsellers. A former journalist on the Sunday Times, Tatler and the Mail on Sunday, she contributes to a range of publications and is a TV and radio regular. She was a judge for the Costa 2013 Novel and Book of the Year Awards. Wendy lives with her husband and two children in Derbyshire.

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