If you squint a little, it becomes a certain sort of triumph to, as a biographer supposedly purveying unbiased facts, reveal so much of your own personality. Unfortunately for David Starkey, his own personality is highly unpleasant, catty, and misogynistic. Go ahead and read Alison Weir if you want to learn about the wives, not only will you roll your eyes less, but the book will move faster, spend more time on the wives who are supposed to be the main focus, and wander off on fewer boring tangents. The main virtue of this book is that it is very, very heavy, and can be used as a barbell for indoor exercise, if you so choose.