Henry imprisoned his wife, fought his elder sons and pinned his hopes on his youngest, whose betrayal was the last straw. As she speaks, LOUIS is turned away from her, murmuring an aside to BERNARD, while the perceptive BERNARD is watching ELEANOR disapprovingly.

In 1800, after being moved several times, their remains were translated to Paris, and in 1817, they were buried together in an elaborate sepulchre at Pere Lachaise. The site of these ponds now lies mostly beneath the lake made by Capability Brown for the dukes of Marlborough, although some uneven ground along the lakeside around the spring conceals the foundations of the medieval buildings. I asked myself last year when, frustrated with the production's cavalier attitude to history, I resigned as consultant on the TV series of Henry VIII and his wives, starring Ray Winstone.DJ glossy and colorfully designed, an illustration with queen in light blue and top front and spine top, stained glass windown at bottom front, horse at top front, purple back.

Firstly, there is very little of this kind of fiction about nowadays; I was told recently it was a very unfashionable genre when I tried to publish a novel about Lady Jane Grey. She was no shrinking violet, but a tough, capable and resourceful woman who effortlessly wielded authority over men in a male-dominated age, and won their respect.Weir, from West Street, Carshalton, has published sever­al historical studies, Elizabeth the Queen (on Elizabeth I); Children of England (about Henry VIII's heirs); Lancaster and York (on the Wars of the Roses); The Princes in the Tower, The Six Wives of Henry VIII and Britiain's Royal Families (a geneological study of the royals). Two tombs with effigies - Henry II and Richard I - at either side of the high altar, on which stands a crucifix. In 1981 I put forward an idea for a biography of the Princess of Wales but it was considered too short to be a commercial venture, and that people would lose interest in her! A: Alison Weir's Eleanor of Aquitaine, a bottle of Champagne that refilled itself and my little rehomed papillon, Rene. speaks of her intention and reflects generally on her life, without giving too much away, but hinting at great turbulence and tragedies.