Thomas More

To show us More as other than saint or villain, [Paul’s] readable biography immerses us in More’s busy, messy and changing world … engrossing * The Times *Fans of The House of Dudley – and , indeed , of Wolf Hall and A Man for All Seasons - will find much to enjoy in this immersive , richly told account of life , death , faith and politics at the early Tudor court * SPECTATOR *THE definitive biography of one of history’s most complex and often inscrutable characters – NATHEN AMIN, author of Son of Prophesy: The Rise of Henry TudorJoanne Paul has created a portrait of Thomas More that is epic, intimate and profoundly relatable to the modern reader. In Paul’s hands he is neither overly good nor bad; he just is. We are in a new age of tyrants – Thomas More shows the necessity of speaking truth to power at all costs – LEAH REDMOND CHANG, Women’s Prize longlisted historian of Young QueensForget […] Hilary Mantel’s caricatures. In this excellent study, Thomas More is reborn as a complex, absorbing man * DAILY TELEGRAPH *Very impressive – ALISON WEIRA work of proper scholarly history as well as a wonderful narrative read…Joanne Paul goes back to the words More wrote himself, to try and get at More before fame and the accusations against him took hold. I so enjoyed the result – SUSANNAH LIPSCOMBPaul gives us a movingly human picture of a family man, scholar, politician and, ultimately, political martyr. As compelling as a novel, the story of More’s rise and fall is vividly told – ELIZABETH NORTONPraise for Joanne Paul – -Death, desire, power and scandal - this is riveting stuff. Paul produces a well-written, historically grounded page-turner * Spectator *

Joanne Paul is a writer, broadcaster, consultant, and Honorary Senior Lecturer in Intellectual History at the University of Sussex. A BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker, her research focuses on the intellectual and cultural history of the Renaissance and Early Modern periods. She has written for the Cambridge University Press ‘Ideas in Context’ series, and has been widely praised for her work on Thomas More, William Shakespeare, Machiavelli and Thomas Hobbes. Her current academic project is an edition of Thomas More’s Utopia for the Oxford University Press. Her first book for the trade, The House of Dudley was published in 2022. Thomas More- A Life is publishing Spring 2025.