Thomas Penn (historian)

Thomas Penn (born 1974) is an English historian, author and editor. He is best known for his 2011 biography of King Henry VII of England, Winter King: The Dawn of Tudor England, for which he won the HW Fisher Best First Biography prize and which was the subject of a 2013 BBC documentary that he presented.

Thomas Penn
Born1974
OccupationAuthor, Editor
LanguageEnglish
NationalityBritish
Alma materClare College, Cambridge
GenreHistory
Notable worksWinter King: The Dawn of Tudor England
Notable awards2012 HW Fisher Prize

He is also the author of The Brothers York: An English Tragedy, published in October 2019.

Biography

Penn earned his Ph.D. in medieval history from Clare College, Cambridge. In addition to his writing, he is the editorial director of Penguin Press UK.[1]

He played for the Authors XI amateur cricket team, which is composed of British writers, during its first two seasons and he contributed a chapter to the team's book about their first season playing together, The Authors XI: A Season of English Cricket from Hackney to Hambledon (Bloomsbury, 2013).[2]

Career

Penn's first book, Winter King: The Dawn of Tudor England, was published by Penguin Books in 2011 and is an account of the life of King Henry VII of England. Historian Helen Castor reviewed it for The Telegraph, writing: "In broad outline, this is not a new story – but, in Penn's hands, it is a revelation...Penn has pulled off a rare feat: a brilliant and haunting evocation of the Tudor world, with irresistible echoes of the age of fear in which we now live".[3] Reviewing it for The Guardian, Blair Worden wrote: "If Penn's interpretation can sometimes seem slanted, its exposition would be hard to over-praise. The expressive and evocative power of his writing, and the union of scholarship with artistry, are rare in modern historical writing".[4] Penn was awarded the HW Fisher Best First Biography prize by the Biographers' Club in 2012 for Winter King.[5]

In 2013, Penn presented an hour-long television documentary based on his book on BBC Two. It was titled Henry VII: Winter King.[6]

The Brothers York: An English Tragedy, is about Edward IV and his two younger brothers, the Duke of Clarence and Richard III. It was published by Penguin Books in October 2019.[7]

Penn wrote a book about King Edward V as part of the Penguin Monarchs series, titled Edward V: The May King. It is said to have been published in April 2019.[8] However, no copies appear to be available, new or second hand, in 2023, and it is not listed by the publisher.

Penn has also written book reviews for the newspaper The Guardian[9][10][11] and the journal London Review of Books.[12][13][14]

Books
  • Winter King: The Dawn of Tudor England (Simon & Schuster, 2010), ISBN 978-1439191569
  • Edward V: The May King (Penguin Monarchs, 2019), ISBN 978-0241185346
  • The Brothers York: An English Tragedy (Simon & Schuster, 2019), ISBN 978-1846146909

References
  1. "Thomas Penn". Simon and Schuster. Retrieved 16 April 2019.
  2. Authors Cricket Club (2013). The Authors XI: A Season of English Cricket from Hackney to Hambledon. London: Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-4088-4045-0.
  3. Castor, Helen (22 September 2011). "Winter King by Thomas Penn: Review". The Telegraph. Retrieved 22 April 2019.
  4. Worden, Blair (25 November 2011). "Winter King: the Dawn of Tudor England by Thomas Penn--Review". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 April 2019.
  5. Williams, Charlotte (14 November 2012). "Tomalin, Penn win Biographers' Club Prizes". Bookseller.com. Retrieved 22 April 2019.
  6. Hollingshead, Iain (30 May 2013). "Henry VII: Winter King, BBC Two, review". Telegraph. Retrieved 7 May 2019.
  7. "The Brothers York: An English Tragedy". Goodreads. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
  8. "Edward V (Penguin Monarchs): The May King". Goodreads. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
  9. Penn, Thomas (30 December 2014). "England Arise by Juliet Barker review – 14th century discontent". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
  10. Penn, Thomas (30 October 2013). "The King's Grave: The Search for Richard III by Philippa Langley and Michael Jones - review". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
  11. Penn, Thomas (19 October 2012). "Hilary Mantel's Thomas Cromwell is the man for this season". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
  12. Penn, Thomas (27 July 2017). "False Brought Up of Nought". London Review of Books. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  13. Penn, Thomas (17 July 2014). "Jousting for Peace". London Review of Books. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  14. Penn, Thomas (5 April 2012). "The First Consort". London Review of Books. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
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