Guest Bio
Kate McCaffrey is the Castle Historian and Assistant Curator at Hever Castle in Kent. She is an expert in Anne Boleyn’s Books of Hours (personal prayerbooks), two of the jewels in Hever Castle’s collection. Her MA thesis with the University of Kent uncovered ground-breaking new evidence about Anne Boleyn’s printed Book of Hours, gaining national and international press attention. She has co-curated two exhibitions at Hever Castle (‘Becoming Anne’ and ‘Catherine and Anne’), written three books, and is currently heading an exciting re-interpretation project at Hever Castle, called ‘The Boleyn Apartment’, which will see the castle’s most significant change in a generation. She is beginning her CHASE funded doctorate with the University of Kent in autumn 2024, continuing her work into late medieval and early modern Books of Hours. She has written for many outlets including the TLS and BBC History, and appeared on several documentaries (for ‘History Hit’), television shows (for the BBC and ITV Meridian) and podcasts (e.g. ‘Talking Tudors’, ‘Not Just The Tudors’).
Kate’s Tudor Takeaway
The Early Tudor Country House: Architecture and Politics 1490-1550 by Maurice Howard
Natalie Grueninger speaks with Kate McCaffrey about the Boleyn Apartment at Hever Castle.
Tune in to hear Natalie and Kate discuss:
– Reinterpreting the rooms
– The rooms that comprise the Boleyn apartment and their use in the sixteenth century
– Recreating a sixteenth-century atmosphere
– Challenges the curatorial team faced along the way
– Anne Boleyn’s books of hours
– What makes the suite of rooms so special
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