The Sphere of Light

The Untold Reality of the Boleyn Women. It took the author Ann Henning Jocelyn three decades of dedicated research to fill the black holes in the Boleyn saga that have persisted for centuries. Her understanding of events at the court of Henry VIII has received the support of eminent Tudor historians. The author's interest in the Boleyn family stems from her marriage to the tenth Earl of Roden, a direct descendant of Lord Hunsdon, son of Mary Boleyn and, presumably, King Henry VIII. The Roden family is still in possession of early books and portraits of Mary, Anne and Hunsdon. Mary's portrait, stolen in an aggravated burglary in 1990 that cost the ninth Earl his life, was dramatically retrieved twenty years later. Performed as a playwright in many venues, including London's West End, the author has also written The Sphere of Light as a stage play. The world premiere at Hever Castle in August 2023 received outstanding reviews. The event attracted much media interest, national as well as local, and this is now being followed up by press advertisements for the novel.

"A whore, a witch and a bitch" - or victims of male supremacy? The myths of Mary, Anne and Jane Boleyn have survived for five hundred years, but they were created by powerful men pursuing their own hidden agendas. A closer look at the allegations of immorality, sorcery and plain madness tells of female vulnerability still prevailing.This captivating novel evolves like a detective story, as a family member airbrushed out of history sets out to uncover the well-kept secrets of the three Boleyn women: Why was Mary, King Henry VIII's sweetheart, unaccountably disgraced and banished from court? How did Anne come to be executed, along with her brother and four others, on false, trumped-up charges? And what drove Jane, first to give false fatal evidence against her own kin, and then risk - and lose - her head for the part she played in Queen Katherine Howard's adultery? The startling conclusion of this book, endorsed by eminent Tudor historians, settles these age-old mysteries.