Henry VIII: Man and Monarch

Help us write the Henry songbook

There's a piano, open for anyone to play, in the Piazza right now.

It's part of an art project called Street Pianos: 30 of them are installed in various locations (mostly outdoors) around London until 13 July. It's meant to encourage community spirit, with some singalongs and impromptu performances.

The street pianos all come with songbooks, and in some locations the songs are chosen to reflect the location. The songbook for Bank's piano, for instance, has songs including Money, money, money and We're in the money.

Sadly, the one here at the British Library just has the standard songbook selection (Dancing queen, Walk on by and so on). We think it should have songs related to the Henry VIII exhibition. Here's a few suggestions:
First cut is the deepest
D.I.V.O.R.C.E.
Kiss me Kate... Anne, Jane, Anne, Kate and Kate
I could not love you, More
Subterranean Romesick blues

No doubt you can do better... or worse...

Pictures from Henry VIII event last Wednesday

More pics

Last Wednesday night saw a range of late-night events at the Library, from 7-11pm, accompanying our Henry VIII exhibition.

The evening featured a concert from the outstanding early music group Alamire of music by and for Henry VIII, as well as jesters, circus acts and comedians, and the extraordinary Tudor-prog-rock of Circulus. Henry VIII himself also put in an appearance.

The photo here comes from the Flickr site of Aneta Grochowska, where you can find a set of pictures from the evening.

It's Henry the Late-th from 27 July

Busy during the day? Our hours are longer in high summer. From 27 July, the Henry VIII exhibition will be open until 8pm every Monday to Thursday.

(The Reading Rooms and Shop are also open until 8pm on those days.)

Still time to hear sublime music from Alamire

Outstanding early music group Alamire have just given a free lunchtime concert of music by and for Henry VIII in the Entrance Hall of the Library (above). For a brief flavour listen to this MP3 (30 sec, 200 KB):

(Or play it in your default media player.)

Alamire also feature in one of our Henry VIII podcasts. The 17-minute special features experts talking about music written by and for Henry, and includes a full performance of the remarkable 'Rose Canon', Salve radix.

You can hear Alamire again tonight in our tickets-only Late at the Library event, from 7 to 11pm.

The event also features jesters, circus acts and comedians, and the extraordinary Tudor-prog-rock of Circulus. Admission is just £10, which includes entry to the Henry VIII exhibition (which is staying open late).

New podcast: Henry myths busted

We've put another new podcast: Henry VIII - Myths and Reality (17 min, 7.8MB).

Clichés about Henry abound. But many are the products of film fantasy rather than fact. So here we ask people in the street to tell us what they think they know about England's most talked-about king - and then exhibition guest curator David Starkey puts the record straight.

David Starkey podcast: bonus MP3

If you enjoyed the David Starkey podcast we talked about yesterday, hear this bonus MP3 of audience questions and answers following the lecture (16min, 6.5MB):

(Or play it in your default media player.)

Another Starkey podcast

For those who missed David Starkey's second Henry VIII lecture at the Library on Tuesday 2 June (or for those of you who attended but want to hear it again) the recording is now on our website.

'The Change 1509-33' is now available as a podcast (57min, MP3).

Hear it at our Henry VIII podcasts page. You can subscribe to future podcasts and catch up on any you have missed by clicking on the podcast feed here or at the top of the podcasts page.

New interactive: Explore Henry's handwriting

Get inside Henry VIII's mind with our new interactive.

With it you can reveal the notes Henry added to three key documents to find out his thoughts on the big issues of his reign.

We've digitally removed his annotations so that you see the documents as Henry first saw them nearly 500 years ago.

You can zoom in, click and drag, hide or reveal his notes, and see transcriptions and explanations.

New podcast: Anne Boleyn's Book of Hours

We've put up another new podcast: Anne Boleyn's Book of Hours, all explained in seven minutes.

Anne's book of private devotion is not only a splendid example of Flemish religious book painting. It is also a unique and intimate glimpse into her affair with Henry VIII.

A remarkable written exchange between her and Henry on its pages reveals a lot about what drove the king to remake England from scratch - all for the love of a woman and her tempting promises. Rob Ainsley talks to curator Scot McKendrick.

There's a page about Anne's book, including a zoomable image of the page with Henry's message to her, on our Online Gallery.

New podcast: Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall

We've put up a new podcast. In this 66-minute interview, author Hilary Mantel reads from and discusses her book Wolf Hall, set in the world of Henry VIII’s notorious chief minister Thomas Cromwell.

The recording was made in front of a studio audience at the British Library on Wednesday 27 May. It is introduced and hosted by Erica Wagner, literary editor of the Times, and also features historian Derek Wilson.