Thomas More

A Life

Joanne Paul

The definitive biography of the man who dominated political and intellectual circles in England during the sixteenth century: Thomas More.

Born into the era of the Wars of the Roses, educated during the European Renaissance, rising to become Chancellor of England, and ultimately destroyed by Henry VIII, Thomas More was one of the most famous—and notorious—figures in English history.

Was he a saintly scholar, the visionary author of Utopia, and an inspiration for statesmen and intellectuals even today? Or was he the cruel zealot famously portrayed in Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall? Thomas More: A Life is a monumental biography of this hypnotic, flawed figure. Overturning prior interpretations of this titan of the sixteenth century, Joanne Paul shows Thomas More to have been intellectually and politically central to the making of modern Europe.

Based on new archival discoveries and drawing on more than a decade of research into More’s life and work, this is a richly told story of faith and politics that illuminates a man who, more than four hundred years after his execution, remains one of the most brilliant minds of the Renaissance.

Joanne Paul is Senior Lecturer in Early Modern 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. The House of Dudley is her first book. She lives in Sussex.

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Endorsements & Reviews

“Achieve[s] that increasingly rare balance between expertise and style. This book beautifully captures both the life of a fascinating man and the fading world that he died trying to preserve. More’s life had the arc of a Shakespearean tragedy. Ms. Paul skillfully conveys the stakes of More’s struggle [and] narrates the story’s denouement in riveting detail. Ms. Paul’s portrait is sympathetic, but not hagiographic. Her book is a subtle effort to explore the great paradox of Thomas More. The martyr to conscience is easily dismissed as a fool or a scoundrel. More, in Ms. Paul’s wonderful account, is neither of these.” Jeffrey Collins, The Wall Street Journal

"A figure as complex as Thomas More is no easy subject, yet Joanne Paul’s account of his life is nothing short of spectacular. Impeccably researched and intelligently written, Paul handles More's story with the perfect combination of scholarship and verve. With Paul's truly extraordinary flair for storytelling, this is going to be the definitive biography of Thomas More for decades to come.” Nicola Tallis, author of Young Elizabeth

"‘A rich, immersive and clear-sighted exploration of this most contested of Tudor lives. Joanne Paul vividly reconstructs the late medieval world that formed Thomas More and which, as that world started to split apart, he fought courageously and vainly to save. In stripping away the accretions of historical reputation-making, shereveals More as a figure of his age, in all his complex and contradictory humanity.” Thomas Penn, author of Winter King

“Fans 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.” The Spectator

“To show us More as other than saint or villain, her new, hugely readable biography immerses us in More’s busy, messy, and changing world. Paul is brilliant at bringing the swirl of Catholic England to life. Paul’s engrossing biography more than shows More and his world are compelling, strange, and dark.” The Times (London)

“Joanne 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 Queens

"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 Tudor

"A work of proper scholarly history as well as a wonderful narrative read. More is so often seen as either a saint, i.e. ‘The Man For All Seasons’ or the misogynistic bigot we see in Wolf Hall. In this superb biography, 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 Lipscomb, author of A Journey Through Tudor England

"Very impressive.” Alison Weir, New York Times bestselling author

“An exceptionally well-researched biography, situating its subject in his rightful place at the heart of the turmoil of the early sixteenth century. Rather than simply a statesman-turned-victim of Henry VIII, Paul 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 Norton, author of The Hidden Lives of Tudor Woman