Last week I went to Hampton Court Palace. I’ve been before, but only on a school trip as a child, so revisiting it as an adult who wanted to be there was much more exciting. I’ve never been really enthused by the Tudor period – I think that when I learned about it, it was (rather inevitably) overshadowed by the King’s six wives and their various fates.

My opinion changed slightly when I read Alison Uttley’s excellent A Traveller in Time. It’s the best kind of children’s book – it doesn’t talk down to or patronise the reader, and is therefore perfectly suited for adults as well – and has a wonderful dream-like fairytale quality. That was my first experience of historical fiction, and it made me realise that the dry lists of names and dates I was being taught at school actually corresponded to real people, with hopes, fears, and lives of their own.

In more recent years I’ve been reading Phillippa Gregory’s books on various Tudor characters. I find her writing a little bit hit or miss (and hated The Wise Woman, which seemed a huge deviation from her usual style) but for the most part, it’s good stuff, and although I’m no expert on the period, it feels accurate, which is important. I can’t count the number of historical novels – usually romances, actually – that I’ve laid down in disgust because of glaring errors, unusually modern heroines or ridiculous speech patterns. But then, I’m a pedant about that sort of thing (and I can’t stand the appalling TV series The Tudors, which seems to primarily concern itself with Henry’s libido). This is a rant for another time, though: long story short, my reading and research changed my mind about the Tudors, and made me very keen to visit the palace.

So, long preamble over, we come to the visit itself. I had a wonderful time. The Palace is easy to get to, the staff are friendly and knowledgeable, and the audio guides are excellent. I had forgotten about the later additions to the palace – William III and Mary’s apartments, and then later, George II and Caroline’s Georgian rooms (which are closer to my favourite historical period, the Regency). The layout of the rooms is fascinating – they are inter-linked in a long string, each getting you closer to the king’s inner sanctum. Very few one-door rooms leading off a central hall, as we’re used to, and therefore little chance for privacy. The intrigue and gossip of courtly life makes more sense when you see the way the courtiers lived.

I wanted desperately to take some of the portraits home with me, but I think someone might have noticed. Particularly notable were the “Hampton Beauties”, painted by Sir Godfrey Kneller, and the “Windsor Beauties” by Sir Peter Lely. They are lush, rich pictures of beautiful women in equally beautiful clothes. Unfortunately I couldn’t take photos in that part of the palace, and can’t find any online either, but they are well worth a look.

Some of the costumes from The Other Boleyn Girl were on show. Here I could take pictures, and did.

The gardens were exquisitely kept, and although the day was decidedly grey, there were splashes of colour everywhere:

Of course, I made my way through the maze, too (why is getting lost with a bunch of strangers so much fun?):

Further reading:

• The Beauties of Hampton Court

  A guidebook from 1845 (PDF download, or read online)

• The Windsor Beauties: Ladies of the Court of Charles II

  Revised edition of the 1928 text (preview only), with short biographies on each of the Beauties