Alison Weir's new book casts Henry VIII in a different light, reports CHRIS TITLEY.

SCHOLARLY history books singularly failed to interest Alison Weir. It was an altogether more racy genre that inspired her passion for the past. "I read a cheap historical novel," she reveals, while perched on a sofa at York Waterstone's.

"I was off sick from school and it entranced me. I think it was the sex in the book. I hadn't read anything like that before. Now you would probably think it very tame."

It certainly contrasted with the standard historical text books. "Nothing they taught me at school turned me on to history. I was bored stiff by history lessons."

The novel was about Katherine of Aragon, and launched her interest in Tudor times and the monarchy. Later she began studying the medieval period too.

The Tudor dynasties led lives "full of high drama", she said. And this was "a sumptuous period, with unusual dramas happening in magnificent palaces".

Quite by accident, Weir had stumbled on something so fulfilling that she devoted hours of her spare time to it.

Over many years, while working as a civil servant and bringing up two children in Surrey, she amassed a wealth of research.

Publishers turned down each synopsis she put forward for a history book. Then she decided to compile her research into a reference guide to the monarchy. Britain's Royal Families was first published in 1989.

That opened the door. During the Nineties, she had published The Six Wives of Henry VIII, The Princes in the Tower, The Wars of the Roses, The Children of Henry VIII, The Life of Elizabeth I and Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Weir's style, combining thorough historical research with a colourful and pacy gift for storytelling, has endeared her to countless readers.

In her latest book, Henry VIII: King And Court, Weir examines the whole breadth of life at court, from the monarch and his courtiers to the king's laundress.

She is keen to challenge the Charles Laughton movie stereotype of Henry VIII, complete with boorish imagery of him flinging chicken bones into the fire.

She has attempted to bring out his cultured, sensitive side.

Her interest in Britain's Royal Family comes right up to the present day. "Their lives are quite colourful," she says of the Windsors. But much of the tabloid tittle-tattle will be worthless to future historians as it is unsubstan-tiated. She feels the monarchy is still relevant today. "I do think it's a good thing we have got a constitutional monarchy.

"It's a benign government. The Queen is a figurehead who can be respected for her long experience and who doesn't take the blame when things go wrong."

Weir doesn't take the future of the institution for granted, however. "I feel the Government is dumbing down the monarchy to try to sideline it."