The Queen’s Painter
Welcome to the Wendsite! f you haven’t been here before, have a wander round the tabs. I’m a No 1 bestselling novelist who used to be a journalist then a writer of romantic comedies. More recently I pivoted to historical novels, with a well-received trilogy about the women of the House of Windsor. This included the bestselling The Governess, about Marion Crawford, who taught Elizabeth II and experienced World War 2 and the Abdication alongside the royal family.
My new book The Queen’s Painter brings a completely fresh angle to the court of Henry VIII, which has been novelised every which way except from the point of view of Hans Holbein, the artist who immortalised it.
It’s perfect timing because 2026 marks the 500th anniversary of Holbein’s arrival in England. The German-born genius went on to revolutionise royal image-making with his painting of Henry VIII. Wide-shouldered, legs apart, blazing with gold and jewels. The most famous picture of England’s most famous king.
But Holbein himself has remained obscure. And yet he had a ringside seat for all the bloody dramas; what did he think of Henry? Or of Anne Boleyn, his friend and early patron. How did he feel when she was executed?
I thought I could guess. There are clues in Holbein’s pictures and The Queen’s Painter threads them all together. It's a revenge drama beginning with Anne Boleyn’s death and culminating with another Anne, of Cleves.
Holbein’s Cleves portrait is one of art’s enduring mysteries. Why did an artist so famous for the truth of his work make the plain German princess look so pretty? The risk was stratospheric, the results disastrous. Henry wanted Anne as Wife No 4, sight unseen, on the strength of the picture. But when she arrived he was horrified and had to be dragged to the altar.
He was furious, but not, in the event, with the artist. Rather it was Thomas Cromwell, the royal fixer who sent Hans to Cleves, who lost his head over the marriage.
Was this Holbein’s intention all along? Did he destroy the most powerful man in England with his paintbrush? And could the reason have been Anne Boleyn? But why?
You’ll find out in The Queen’s Painter. Coming June 18 2026 from Mountain Lion Press.