Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"A History Today Book of the Year"
"[An] excellent new study."
---Andrew Hadfield, Times Literary Supplement"A fascinating window onto Tudor life at its best, worst and most complicated."
---Noel Malcolm, Daily Telegraph"Thoroughly enjoyable and enlightening."
---Dominic Green, Wall Street Journal"Andersson profiles in this diligent study 16th-century court jester William Somer, Henry VIII’s favored ‘fool.’ . . . The result is an illuminating look into Somer’s role as a source of broad humor and stress relief in a tumultuous court ruled by a mercurial king." * Publishers Weekly *
"Andersson has given us a vivid, tantalising portrait of [Will Somer] and a nuanced exploration of how he and those around him negotiated one another. . . .Will Somer’s ghost has life in it yet."
---Matthew Lyons, History Today"Anyone who wants to know about this oddly central figure in Tudor life will find Andersson’s book worthwhile."
---Alec Ryrie, The Conversation"A fascinating look at Will Somer, Henry VIII’s court fool. . . .A book that makes a great case for looking at history through those who are often disregarded."
---Nandini Das, History Today"Even by the end of this biography, you will wonder how much you know about Will Somer, and that is all to the good. . . . [Andersson] provides a therapeutic rebuke to much of the nonsense written about Somer."
---Carl Rollyson, New York Sun
