Portrait of an Unknown Woman by Vanora Bennett

It is 1527. The English Renaissance is in full swing under the young King Henry VIII. The young German painter Hans Holbein, who has come to London to seek his fortune, is delighted when he gets a commission to paint the family of Thomas More, one of England’s leading statesman and men of learning, at his country home in Chelsea.

The story is seen through the eyes of More’s young ward Meg, and shows her growing feelings for her tutor, a man of mysterious background called John Clement, whom she will marry, and for Holbein himself, whom she will love. This complex of emotions is played out against a backdrop of worsening religious intolerance in England and across Europe. More, a devout Catholic, abandons his old friendships with the humanists who have brought the Renaissance to England, and – to Meg’s growing horror – devote himself to hunting down Protestant heretics.

The story is framed by the two portraits Holbein will paint of the family – the first when Thomas More is about to become Lord Chancellor and is at the peak of his powers, and the second, seven years later, after More has resigned his job in protest at the King’s decision to divorce his first wife, the Spanish Catholic Catherine of Aragon, and marry the Protestant Anne Boleyn. With disaster looming for the More family, Holbein’s genius for truth-telling through his painting brings out all the family secrets in the second portrait he paints of the Mores – including the one that even hardly anyone in the family knows, that of John Clement’s true identity.

When I opened this yesterday the first thing I thought of was Keishon. Second thing was the book jacket is odd. Third was how in the hell do I get sent this but not The Taste of Innocence? WHAT? It if came I would read it *g*.

Then I read the info on the book. Sidenote: the author looks way too much like my mother. So I was curious. It drops the names of other historical books I like. But I have no control. I admit it.

Wanna know how it ends?

Has anyone read this yet? It looks like it came out in the UK last year and will be releasing in the US in April. What cha think? From what I read it looks interesting. And if you like historical fiction I would give it a look see. I would read this now if it wasn’t for the huge to be read NOW stack I have going on.

Otherwise it will make friends with the Abe I have to send to Keishon.