Quotes from Alison Weir

It gives me a huge buzz when people say they've enjoyed my books, because this grew out of a hobby, and it's an absolute passion, and it's lovely when I get feedback.

I love reading about the supernatural, and time-slip novels, and the mistress of both is Barbara Erskine.

You must pray to God for forgiveness because I can give you none

I prefer to be left alone with my books.

If only they would all just leave me alone with my books and my letters, I would be content to let life, and the world pass me by

You must pray to God for forgiveness because I can give you none

She had already decided that, when she grew up, she was going to do whatever she pleased and not let anyone order her about.

I cannot go with you all the way on your journey, but I would go as far as I might

I steel myself to ignore his taunts and his coarse language. I no longer care what he says or does. It doesn't matter anymore. I am detached, contained in my own private world where he cannot reach me. It is my last refuge.

It did not do to give your heart to a man so entirely, she thought. Men did not value what they came by easily. Once you loved, you laid yourself open to pain.

The Burgundian chronicler Philippe de Commines thought the English a choleric, earthy, and volatile people, who nevertheless made good, brave soldiers. In fact he regarded their warlike inclinations as one of the chief causes of the Wars of the Roses. If they could not fight the French, he believed, they fought each other.

Court life for a queen of France at that time was, however, stultifyingly routine. Eleanor found that she was expected to be no more than a decorative asset to her husband, the mother of his heirs and the arbiter of good taste and modesty.

I will never give him the satisfaction of knowing how much he has wounded and enraged me. In my silence lies my strength.

I waste so much time sleeping. And time is of all losses the most irrecuperable, for it can never be redeemed.

But what use was the semblance of power without the substance?

When these with violence were burned to death, We wished for our Elizabeth.

How sad it was not to know how happy you were until it was too late.

At six o'clok the young King's terrible sufferings finally ended. After his eyes had closed for the last time, the tempeste raged on. Later, superstitious folk claimed that Henry himself had sent it, and had risen from his grave in anger at the subversion of his will.

What she loved was being admired, being wanted, being pursued—but she did not think she wanted ever to be caught.

Katherine of Aragon was a staunch but misguided woman of principle; Anne Boleyn an ambitious adventuress with a penchant for vengeance; Jane Seymour a strong-minded matriarch in the making; Anne of Cleves a good-humoured woman who jumped at the chance of independence; Katherine Howard an empty-headed wanton; and Katherine Parr a godly matron who was nevertheless all too human when it came to a handsome rogue.

His handsome face is suffused with rage. He stands before me shaking, then to my disgust, bursts into noisy tears; "I shall tell my mother of you!" he sobs and crashes out of the chamber

We want men to admire us for our courage, our characters, and our intellect, not just our beauty.

If only the Fates had granted him a longer stay in this

I must bear it well as I may. As my sainted mother used to say, we never come to the kingdom of Heaven but by troubles.