Houses of Power
by Simon Thurley, Bantam Press, £30
It requires a great deal of archival work and a lively historical imagination to recreate the world of Tudor royal palaces. These buildings were centres of governance, worship, intrigue and domestic life, but all too often surviving physical traces are frustratingly limited.
Archaeology helps, as do financial records, but drawing everything together is a daunting undertaking. Simon Thurley makes it look easy, and his latest book is one of the finest works of historical reconstruction I have ever encountered.
