The Confession of Katherine Howard

Eighteen-year-old Catherine Howard thought she could have it all: a King and a lover! Lady-in-waiting to Anne of Cleves, Henry VIII's new German wife, it wasn't long before a teenage Catherine caught the King's eye. Pretty, lively and young, he swiftly made her his queen. Catherine found herself showered with riches and at the center of a lavish court life. Dizzy with the power she suddenly possessed, she failed to realize the political realities of her life. Just over a year into her marriage, during a special service at which Henry was giving thanks to God for his wonderful wife, Archbishop Cranmer passed the King a letter, listing allegations against Catherine before she became queen. Henry asked the archbishop to investigate; he was show more never to see his young wife again. Told twenty years on from the perspective of Catherine's close friend, Cat Tilney, the novel tells the life of this damaged, dangerous and short-lived queen. Suzannah Dunn presents us with a feisty, determined Catherine, who refused to allow men to walk over her -- even if they did happen to be the King of England.

I will read about the Tudors in any form and by anybody as it is my favourite period in history. This book is about the early days and the days leading up to the death of Katherine Howard from the point of view of her friend Cat Tilney. The romance between Cat and Francis is fiction made up by the author although the book is full of historical facts. There are no surprises with the book as we all know the outcome, but being told from the observations of somebody else the story is the same but with a different opinion of what happened. So this book may not be juicy and sexy like some books but is an ok read. My own thoughts on Katherine Howard is that when she became queen she saw possessions unlike cousin Anne Boleyn who saw power. show less

This book presented a somewhat new view of Katherine Howard’s tale, or at least a view new to me. The entire story is told from the viewpoint of the best friend of Katherine, Cat Tilney, and it’s a somewhat sympathetic, but maybe more plausible, description of the entire debacle. Granted, the friendship between Katherine and Cat is likely very fabricated, and perhaps I liked it so much because the view presented is more in line with how I’ve always looked at Kitty myself.

The typical tale of Katherine is that she was a relatively simple minded girl who let her heart get the better of her in multiple situations. She’s always portrayed as very flighty, never putting much thought into anything, and only concerned with her looks and show more what that’ll get her. And there’s definitely some of that in this book, but Cat also represents Kitty as very calculating with her liaisons, and as knowing exactly what she’s doing the entire time.

Katherine goes through much of her girlhood picking out some new boy to receive affection from, those relationships getting more involved as she gets older, but she’s certainly never the innocent. Cat watches in wonder and horror much of the time, not really understanding what Katherine is thinking. Especially after Kitty becomes queen and embarks on an affair with Thomas Culpeper.

Cat really echoes a lot of what I’ve always thought – when you know what happened to Anne Boleyn, why on earth would you even take the risk? Katherine Howard had a great position for herself: in all likelihood she was going to outlive Henry VIII. She could have been remembered as the adored little queen who entertained the king in his twilight years.

Granted, the Howard family had accumulated even more enemies in this time as they had during Anne’s reign, but isn’t that all the more reason for caution? While I’ve always felt that Anne was truly taken down by her enemies rather than her own indiscretions, I’ve likewise believed that Kitty simply made a bunch of thoughtless mistakes with no mind for the history of her husband. She really should have been doing everything to keep herself above suspicion, and the ladies around her who were older should have done more to watch out for her youthful, naive mind.

I quite enjoyed this book, so much that I ordered a couple of other books by this author and hope to read them soon. I loved this alternative look at Katherine’s life, and I can’t wait to see if Suzannah Dunn takes the same sort of look at other Queens of England. show less

I was conflicted about this one. Loved the writing itself, the way the words flowed. Felt cheated that the title implied a different approach (I expected a story written from Catherine Howard's POV), didn't really like the first person narrative (I rarely do), and got annoyed at some of the too-modern dialogue. I also was in two very different minds about the ending. On the one hand, I found it far too sudden - but at the same time, it really stayed with me (to the point where I reread just those last pages a few times) so I have to give the author credit for that kind of power.

As a big fan of British History fiction, I was really excited to win this book. And it did not disappoint! I've not read anything by Dunn yet, but I have one of her other books in my queue and am now very excited to read it. I found this book to be well researched, giving the reader a better understanding of the order and turns of events surrounding Henry VIII's 5th wife. Very little in the book is actually about Henry or the Tudors. It is more about Katherine and her life, her personality, her friends, her choices. If you are interested in the era, this book is insightful.

I also really enjoyed the tone of the book, which lent itself to the understanding of Katherine and her ways. The story is told by her best friend, who struggles with show more Katherine's moral compass vs accepting her for who she just is. This "queen" is so easily shrugged off as a teen floozy; I was glad to read a book that explored her character, or true lack thereof, a little more deeply.

A quick read. I will certainly recommend the book to my fellow Anglophiles! :-) show less

In this historical fiction novel, the life of a young girl who is enigmatically crowned Queen to rule beside Henry VIII is explored through the eyes of her girlhood companion turned Lady-in-Waiting. When Cat Tilney is sent to the estate of the dowager Duchess of York to be tutored in the ways of nobility,, she has no idea that Katherine, one of the most savvy and headstrong girls in residence with her, will one day become the Queen of England. As the narrative flashes forward and backward, the reader comes to know the irascible Katherine and follows her throughout her juvenile escapades with the men of the manor to her time as a queen who notoriously cuckolds her husband, the fearsome King Henry. As Katherine and Cat’s stars rise, show more Katherine becomes ever more secretive and wily, while Cat remains true to her young lover Francis, who was once one of Katherine’s playthings. But when it’s discovered that Katherine took the throne belying her status as a virgin, things become dangerous for both the queen and her serving women, leaving Cat in the position of harboring a horrible secret from the rest of the world. At once suspenseful and evocative, The Confessions of Katherine Howard tells the sordid story of the fifth wife of Henry VIII.

I have to say I thought this book was dreadfully mistitiled. The title would lead you to believe that the book was told from the viewpoint of Katherine Howard when the reality is that the book is told from the viewpoint of Cat Tilney, and most of the action and dialog revolves around her. It makes me a little irritated that every historical fiction author out there wants to write a book about Henry VIII and his ill-fated wives, but what makes me even more frustrated is when a book’s title infers that it’ll cover one subject but really is aiming to cover another. Though I did enjoy most of the book, this nit-pick I had with the title really hampered my enjoyment and suspended my ability to read without prejudice. The book should have been called The Confessions of Katherine’s Howard’s Handmaid.

One of the things I liked about the book was that it revealed a great deal that was previously unknown about Katherine Howard. I had known for some time that she hailed from a politically ambitious family of sycophants, but Katherine’s origins and early history remained opaque to me until I read this book. All I really knew was that she was considered a man-eater, and that she had several affairs throughout both her teenage years and into her days as Queen to Henry. Katherine was portrayed as a rather cold and calculating person who never gave much thought to propriety or appearances. She rather shamelessly strung many men along, and in the end, it was her voracious appetite for carnal pleasures that was her undoing. I can’t say I liked her very much, as she had none of the spunk of Anne Boleyn or the spiritual long-suffering as Henry’s first queen, Catherine. As the book was mainly a bystander’s account of her life, I felt more invested in the story of Cat Tilney and her budding relationship with Francis. Cat seemed much more of an everyday person who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I don’t think she wanted to be tied up in Katherine’s fate, but circumstances left those things out of her control, and because of that, she became the final piece in Katherine’s undoing.

Though it first it didn’t really bother me, as the book progressed, the management of the flashbacks became a little obstructive to a smooth reading experience. I never really knew just what period I was reading about, which caused a lot of confusion during certain sections. I would have liked to see some kind of separation by date in the mingling sections, because as it was, whenever I began a new chapter, I was initially lost as to where it fit in in the timeline. I also had a problem with the fact that a lot of the characters’ thoughts were interspersed within the dialog in a rather clumsy way. Someone would be talking, and all of a sudden, quotation marks would be dropped and text would be italicized, with another set of quotations marks picking up right behind it. It was a little irksome to read and I thought it could have been handled in a different and more orderly fashion.

Though I had some obvious problems with this book, I still have to confess that I rather enjoyed the story it told. The writing was simple and direct, which made the intricacies of the plot stand out fully. The crucial information it provided on the early life of Katherine Howard was hugely satisfying and filled in what scant information I had come across regarding this ill-fated queen’s rise to fame. I think those readers who enjoy historical fiction set in early 16th century, and those who like to gobble up anything about Henry VIII’s illustrious wives, would do very well in giving this book a try. Though I do warn there are some caveats, it was still a very interesting read. show less

found this novel very similar to a Philippa Gregory book in the historical fiction genre. Here, the story centers on the coming of age of Katherine Howard and fellow protégés of Agnes Howard, Dowager Duchess of Norfolk. The story flips back and forth from the present day of November 2nd, 1541 and the, roughly, 5 or 6 years prior to. The roommates, specifically, Katherine and her close friend "Cat" learn about life and love under the protective and shielded care of the Duchess yet find plenty of time to be naughty with the available men on the estate.
Fun and games should have probably come to a conclusion when King Henry VIII makes Katherine his fifth wife but she feels she's earned the right to continue to have her other amusements, show more afterall, her new husband is huge and slobbering. Of course, Henry's been down this road before and knows there are ways to silence such a wife.
A fairly good book and I would recommend it to others if you want a quick and entertaining read. Those well versed in history may find some inconsistencies however this is fiction and liberty's may have been taken. show less

I'm really on the fence about this one. There is much to admire about it, but also much to dislike. First of all, what I didn't like--another first person narrative, although I do understand why it's used--to keep Katherine at a distance and to judge her strictly by her actions, without letting the character's inner motivations justify her deeds. I also dislike the modern dialogue. It's not that difficult to make dialogue read and sound authentic to the time period (see Margaret Irwin's Elizabeth I trilogy for brilliant Tudor dialogue!). But for characters from the 1500s to say things like, "I'm just saying," or "Hello, you," is really jarring. What I do appreciate about this book is that Dunn researched it well, and had all the show more historical personages in the correct places at the correct times. And her characterization of Katherine Howard, Henry VIII's young 5th wife, as a manipulative flirt, is probably right on the money show less