Hilary Mantel On Anne Boleyn

“[She] is one of the most controversial women in English history; we argue over her, we pity and admire and revile her, we reinvent her in every generation. She takes on the colour of our fantasies and is shaped by our preoccupations: witch, bitch, feminist, sexual temptress, cold opportunist. … Much of what we think we know about Anne melts away on close inspection.”