Joanne Paul is a writer, broadcaster, consultant, and Honorary
Senior Lecturer in Intellectual History at the University of
Sussex. A BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker, her research focuses on
the intellectual and cultural history of the Renaissance and Early
Modern periods. She has written for the Cambridge University Press
'Ideas in Context' series, and has been widely praised for her work
on Thomas More, William Shakespeare, Machiavelli and Thomas Hobbes.
Her current academic project is an edition of Thomas More's Utopia
for the Oxford University Press.
Her first book for the trade, The House of Dudley was published in
2022. Thomas More- A Life is publishing Spring 2025.
A tour-de-force of Tudor history, as seen through the eyes of a
family with a front-row view of almost every major political event
in sixteenth-century England. Remarkable
*Dan Jones, Sunday Times bestselling author of Powers and
Thrones*
Exciting and immersive. An immensely entertaining history,
capturing in full Tudor brilliance the cut-throat glamour of the
English throne and the most audacious family to play its game
*Sunday Times*
House of Dudley is a full-blooded affair, as good on the horrors of
war as it is on the soft power of the Dudley women, and written in
a lively, episodic style that presents each Dudley as a foil to the
monarch they served
*Jessie Childs*
Breathes new life into an old and familiar Tudor story. [She]
negotiates the labyrinth of Tudor politics with skill, producing a
book much more comprehensible and illuminating than others I've
read . . . It's delightful, a joy to read
*The Times, BOOK OF THE WEEK*
I am hugely impressed by The House of Dudley and by the depths of
research.
This is a pacy narrative, vividly written, that makes you want to
read on and on.
Joanne Paul is a major new talent in the field and I eagerly await
her next book
*Alison Weir*
This is riveting stuff: death, desire, power and scandal. Paul has
made the most of it, producing a well written and historically
grounded page-turner . . . Game of Thrones looks tame compared with
the real-life machinations of the Dudleys and the Tudors
*Spectator*
A twist on the Tudors . . . Enormously entertaining - a sheer joy
to read
*The Times, '25 BEST HISTORY BOOKS OF 2022'*
A hugely entertaining history of three generations of the Dudley
family, who dominated the Tudor court
*The Times*
A thrilling and deeply researched study of power and conspiracy:
the rise and fall of the other Tudor dynasty. The House of Dudley
illuminates the fascinating men and women who almost became kings
and queens in their own right
*Simon Sebag-Montefiore*
Vivid, innovative and authoritative. I could not recommend The
House of Dudley more highly. It's a real lesson in how to
revitalise the writing of Tudor history
*Sarah Gristwood*
Joanne Paul's account of this family is rich and compelling. She
manages to hit that sweet spot where scholarly history overlaps
with dramatic storytelling; she conjures up the look and feel of
Tudor life, down to the clothes, the medicines and the furniture,
while also being a skilful filler-in of political background . . .
Whether or not you have ever succumbed to Mantelmania, you will
find yourself drawn in, fascinated, and richly informed
*Telegraph*
An enthralling read told by Paul with great verve and an eye for
the telling detail . . . The family's complex history is concisely
and compellingly related
*Literary Review*
Visceral and illuminating. The extraordinary House of Dudley is the
Tudor Game of Thrones. Paul has produced a painstakingly detailed
first book with spirit and verve
*The Wall Street Journal*
Captivating and thought-provoking . . . Sheds immense light onto
this often-overlooked family
*Royal Studies Journal*
The crowning jewel in its genre . . . I can't recommend this book
enough. Unputdownable
*Lindsey Fitzharris*
When reading Joanne Paul's lively history of the house of Dudley,
it is impossible not to be reminded of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall
trilogy . . . Paul uses the experiences of the Dudleys to light up
odd corners and backroom spaces of Tudor palace life
*Mail on Sunday*
Joanne Paul chronicles the meteoric rise and deadly fall of the
Dudleys
*BBC History Magazine*
Joanne Paul reveals how the might of the Tudor dynasty was built on
the blood and sweat of three generations of another family - the
Dudleys
*BBC History Magazine*
Hugely entertaining
*The Times, Best Books of Summer 2022*
Fascinating
*History Today*
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