* Bloody Tales of the Tower – Presented by Suzannah Lipscomb and Joe Crowley for National Geographic. Now *this* one I am unreservedly looking forward to!

* US publication of sequel to Mantel’s award-winning ‘Wolf Hall’ moved from November to May

* BlancheParry.com has a calendar out for 2012, with proceeds once again going to Bacton Church, Herefordshire

* Historic Knole House in Sevenoaks may be forced to close to public – More information on the fund raising appeal here

Another neat video from the Historic Royal Palaces You Tube channel:

And a video about symbols in Holbein’s The Ambassadors You Tube channel from the National Gallery (check back through the uploads for more on this painting and others by Holbein, as well as other great art!):

The first bit of news was that the name of the sequel has been changed to Bring Up the Bodies and the previously announced title The Mirror and the Light (that I blogged about here) will be used for the third book. Somewhere in the back of my mind I thought that she had at least hinted that her Cromwell books might end up as a trilogy and now it seems to be the case.

News articles:
Hilary Mantel writes second sequel to Wolf Hall
Hilary Mantel novel Wolf Hall will be part of a trilogy
Hilary Mantel reveals plans for Wolf Hall trilogy

And the other interesting piece of news – which isn’t really all that surprising given the success of The Tudors – HBO and the BBC are developing a mini-series based on Wolf Hall! I’m pretty optimistic that they’ll do a really good job of this although the plans are for four episodes which will mean a lot will have to be cut from the book.

News articles:
BBC and HBO line up Wolf Hall drama
HBO And BBC Developing Miniseries Based On Wolf Hall
BBC, HBO Team for ‘Wolf Hall’ Miniseries

* British Library’s Treasures in Full: Renaissance Festival Books – I thought I had posted about this collection before, but I couldn’t find it in the archives. This is a collection of over 250 16th and 17th century books from around Europe digitized by the British Library.

* Ancient music books accessible to all – Another great digitization project, this time of early music books. The archive is at Early Music Online.

And finally…

* Wendy Dunn is teaming up with Natalie Grueninger of On the Tudor Trail to bring back the Tudor Ghost Story Contest! I know some of you will be pleased to hear this since I still occasionally get emails asking if the contest would be back – and now it is! There will be a US $5 fee to enter, with all of the money going to the Mary Rose Trust.

Books

* David Loades latest Tudor history book “The Boleyns: The Rise and Fall of a Tudor Family” is out September 28 in the UK (the US info is scant).

* Thomas Penn’s novel book about Henry VII “Winter King: The Dawn of Tudor England” is out September 29, 2011 in the UK and March 6, 2012 in the US. It’s nice to see a novel work featuring Henry VII!
[Edit - I goofed, apparently this is a non-fiction book. Thanks for the correction Susan! And my comment about it being nice to see a book featuring Henry VII still stands. ]

* Alison Weir’s “Mary Boleyn” is out officially (apparently it has been showing up in airport bookstores already!) October 4 in the US and October 6 in the UK

* “Bessie Blount: The Story of Henry VIII’s Longtime Mistress” by Elizabeth Norton is scheduled to be out October 28 in the UK (again, US info is scant, but it may be out the same date?)

Exhibitions

* Manifold Greatness: The Creation and Afterlife of the King James Bible opened last week at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington D.C. and will run through January 15, 2012. (I’ve mentioned it before, but I’m so excited that the exhibit will be coming here to Austin, TX after its run at the Folger!)

* Mary Queen of Scots – a small display at the British Library about Mary’s last years as a prisoner in England. This also runs to January 15, 2012.

Movie

* The film “Anonymous” by director Roland Emmerich will be out in theaters on October 28 in both the US and the UK. I’m not a big fan of the whole “Shakespeare didn’t write Shakespeare” conspiracy theory – in particular the “Prince Tudor” variation in this film – but the film looks like it will be a visual treat. Vanessa Redgrave (who played Anne Boleyn in the 1966 “A Man for All Seasons”) is an older Elizabeth I and her daughter Joely Richardson (recently seen as Katherine Parr in “The Tudors”) plays the young Elizabeth. You can see trailers at the movie’s official site.

* Mary Arden’s Farm blog – If you’re interested in Tudor and Elizabethan daily life topics, check out this new blog from the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

* English Heritage Free Sites Audio Tours – English Heritage has put up mp3 versions of audio tours for their free sites that you can download. Be sure to check out some of the other goodies in their multimedia library!

* Damon Albarn and the Elizabethan magical mystery man and The Mystical Artefacts Of John Dee At The British Museum – I don’t get a whole lot of hits on my “John Dee” news alert, so it was particularly surprising to get two in one week (even though they are related, prompted by a new opera)

* Gunpowder Plot documents among millions of papers put online by National Archives and Fourth and final part of State Papers Online – I’ve linked to related stories on this topic in the past and it’s nice to see that it is finally complete. Unfortunately there still doesn’t appear to be a way for individuals to access it without an institutional affiliation (which I’m lucky to have through work!).

* And finally, Mullions XP – Operating System For The Tudor Times, a fun video sent to me by Stephanie through twitter. Enjoy!

* Dame Elizabeth Taylor (1932-2011) – Elizabeth Taylor, Mary I and Hans Eworth

* Lucy Worsley: ‘Lots of historians are sniffy about re-enactors’ – Interview with Lucy Worsley including information about her new series If Walls Could Talk

* Spotted at The Lady Jane Grey Reference Guide Blog – Lecture by Anna Whitelock “Woman, Warrior, Queen – Rethinking Mary I and Elizabeth I”

* Flythrough of the Mary Rose Museum in 2012

(If the captions of the photos on the website are an indication, I don’t have high hopes… they call Robert Dudley “Arthur Dudley” in a few captions, although I think the final one that mentions him might actually be referring to the “Arthur Dudley” that was the supposed son of Elizabeth and Robert.)

* And if you are going to be visiting Windsor Castle in August or September, you will have a chance to take a tour of the castle’s iconic round tower: Conquer the Tower at Windsor Castle

* And from slightly before the Tudor period, a fascinating insight into medieval battle and battlefield archaeology: The Battle of Towton – Nasty, brutish and not that short

* Renaissance Fashion: The Birth of Power Dressing is the cover article from the January 2011 issue of History Today and is available to read on their website.

* I totally forgot to post about this ahead of time, but BBC America is starting to show “The Tudors”, so those who haven’t had a chance to see it on Showtime or DVD can catch it there. And I’ve heard that UK viewers will finally see Season 4 starting later this month!

* A newly built Elizabethan house – an update on a story I first posted about back in November 2007

* The secrets of Parliament’s Victoria Tower uncovered – neat video from the BBC

* The BBC Tudors Collection coming in April – A box set of Shadow of the Tower, The Six Wives of Henry VIII, The Other Boleyn Girl, and Elizabeth R US Amazon pre-order link below for anyone who is interested: