"THE SIXTH WIFE" is set in the night, as Katherine Parr waits for her husband the King to die. She takes the opportunity to reflect on her extraordinary life, and the reign of the glorious, tyrannical - and tragic - Henry VIII.

Katherine Parr saw each of his wives as they came and went - in a variety of unpleasant ways.

Her own life was far from peaceful: four marriages, two indictments for treason, one love affair, power, wealth and then death at the age of 36. She became Queen Regent when Henry went to fight the French; she helped to form the new religion of England; she also befriended a lonely and abandoned child - who later became Queen Elizabeth I.