Cream Tea with the Six Wives
Sun 3 March, 2.00pm
The Guthrie Pavillion
Standard Ticket £36.20
Ticket price includes a cream tea (scone, cream and jam) and bottomless tea or coffee.
A very special talk by six eminent historians, each speaking on their favourite Henry VIII wife. Hear the remarkable stories of each Queen as you enjoy a cream tea and then vote for your favourite!
A cream tea will be served in the interval along with bottomless tea or coffee.
| Katherine of Aragon: | Amy Licence |
| Anne Boleyn: | Kate McCaffrey |
| Jane Seymour: | Dr Elizabeth Norton |
| Anne of Cleves: | Sarah Gristwood |
| Catherine Howard: | Dr Owen Emmerson |
| Katherine Parr: | Dr Nicola Tallis |
Amy Licence
Amy Licence is a journalist, author, historian and teacher. Her particular interest lies in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, in gender relations, queenship and identity, rites of passage, sex, pilgrimage, female orthodoxy and rebellion, superstition, magic, fertility and childbirth. Amy has written for The Guardian, The TLS, The New Statesman, BBC History, The English Review, The London Magazine, The Huffington Post and other places. She is interviewed regularly for BBC radio, including Woman’s Hour and appeared in BBC2’s “The Real White Queen and her Rivals” documentary (2013) and Yesterday Channel’s “The Private Lives of the Tudors (2016). Her first book, “In Bed with the Tudors,” was nominated for the 2015 People’s Book Prize. Her debut novel, “Son of York” came out in 2017.
Kate McCaffrey
Kate McCaffrey is the Castle Historian and Assistant Curator at Hever Castle in Kent. Her MA thesis in 2020 with the University of Kent uncovered ground-breaking new evidence about Anne Boleyn’s printed Book of Hours, gaining national and international press attention. She has co-curated two exhibitions at Hever Castle, written three books (including most recently ‘Holbein’s Hidden Gem: Rediscovering Thomas Cromwell’s Lost Book of Hours’ with Dr Owen Emmerson), and is currently heading a re-interpretation project of Hever Castle which will see its most significant change in a generation. She has written for the TLS and BBC History, appeared on several documentaries, television shows and podcasts and is pursuing her exciting and fruitful research into early sixteenth-century Books of Hours.
Dr Elizabeth Norton
Dr Elizabeth Norton is a London-based historian specialising in the queens of England and the Tudor period. She has a double first class degree from the University of Cambridge, a masters degree from the University of Oxford and a PhD from King’s College London. She has taught History at King’s College London and RADA. Her academic research has been published in several peer reviewed journals.
Elizabeth’s most recent books are the critically acclaimed ‘The Lives of Tudor Women’ and ‘The Temptation of Elizabeth Tudor’. She is also the author of a biography of Margaret Beaufort and four of Henry VIII’s wives, amongst other titles. She regularly writes for magazines, including BBC History magazine, All About History, History Revealed and Who Do You Think You Are? magazine.
Elizabeth frequently appears on television, including Danny Dyer’s Right Royal Family (BBC1), Digging Up Britain’s Past (Channel 5), Secrets of Great British Castles (Channel 5), An American Aristocrat’s Guide to Great Estates (Smithsonian), Flog-It (BBC2), Bloody Tales of the Tower (National Geographic) and Queen Victoria In Her Own Words (Channel 5). She also appears as an expert on BBC London News and on international television, radio and podcasts. She has live commentated events for television, including royal weddings and the Trooping of the Colour. In addition to these television appearances, Elizabeth has worked as a historical consultant on a number of non-fiction and fiction historical films and television.
Sarah Gristwood
Sarah Gristwood is the author of five books on the Tudor age – Game of Queens, Blood Sisters, Arbella, Elizabeth and Leicester and, most recently, The Tudors in Love: The Courtly Code Behind the Last Medieval Dynasty. Contributing regularly to Sky News, the BBC, and many documentary series on royal and historical affairs, she is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society who has also published on twentieth-century figures from Beatrix Potter to Elizabeth II, and just edited Secret Voices, an anthology of women’s diaries.
Dr Owen Emmerson
Dr Owen Emmerson is a social and cultural historian, broadcaster, and author of four books. His most recent book, entitled ‘Holbein’s Hidden Gem: Rediscovering Thomas Cromwell’s Lost Book’ was published in 2023. It tells the story of the ground-breaking discovery made by Kate McCaffrey and Emmerson of the Book of Hours depicted in Hans Holbein’s painting of Thomas Cromwell. Dr Tracy Borman dubbed their efforts as ‘the most exciting Thomas Cromwell discovery in a generation – if not more’. He has appeared in seventeen documentaries about the Tudor era including ‘The Boleyns: A Scandalous Family’ (BBC, 2021) and ‘Blood, Sex and Royalty: Anne Boleyn’ (Netflix, 2022). He is currently writing a full history of Hever Castle, amongst other projects, and lives with his three cats in Sussex.
Dr Nicola Tallis
Dr Nicola Tallis is an independent author and historian, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. She has worked as a curator, researcher, and lecturer, and specialises in the use of jewels in late medieval and Tudor England. Nicola has spoken at many prestigious events and venues including the Emirates Festival of Literature, the Tower of London, Hampton Court, and the National Archives. She has made numerous television and radio appearances, including on BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are?, Channel 5’s The Vikings and The Gunpowder Plot, and Channel 4’s Frankie Boyle’s Farewell to the Monarchy. Nicola is the author of five books.
The Guthrie Pavilion
Seated inside the beautiful Guthrie Pavilion with the glorious view of the lake. You are welcome to visit the castle gardens once the talk has finished and stay in the gardens until they close at 6pm.
Please check our access page for further information.