The Queen’s Painter
Welcome to the Wendsite! If you haven’t been here before, have a wander round the tabs. I’m a No 1 bestselling novelist whose 21 books have sold over three million copies in 14 languages worldwide. Ten of my titles have been top-ten bestsellers in hardback and paperback.
The Queen’s Painter, my latest and 21st novel, has artist Hans Holbein as its hero. The Tudor court has been novelised every which way, but never from the point of view of the man who was its ultimate insider, who observed it all so closely and knew – and painted - every major figure. What was Hans the man actually like? What did he make of the bloody dramas for which he had a ringside easel?
2026 marks the 500th anniversary of Holbein’ arrival in England. The German-born genius would 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 the artist himself has remained obscure. What did he think of Henry? Or of Anne Boleyn? He knew her well, they rose together, she was his friend and early champion of his work. 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. My new novel is a revenge drama beginning with Anne Boleyn’s death and culminating with the drama surrounding 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.
Henry was furious, but not, in the event, with his artist. Rather, with his royal fixer. It was the all-powerful Thomas Cromwell, who had 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?
The Queen’s Painter. A Tudor revenge drama starring Hans Holbein, ultimate insider at the most famous court in history. But whose point of view has never been explored. Until now.