Who’s the “real” Anne Boleyn—the medal, the portraits, or the version we’ve imagined? In this interview, Helene Harrison joins me to discuss her book The Many Faces of Anne Boleyn: Interpreting Image and Perception—not a biography, but a study of how Anne has been seen across centuries.

We explore:

• What readers should unlearn about Anne’s image
• Beyond the 1534 medal: which likeness may come closest—and which is most misleading
• Foreign observers (ambassadors, visitors): who reads Anne well, and who writes with an agenda?
• Evidence vs. imagination: where the record ends and interpretation begins
• Stage/film/TV: what one portrayal gets right—and what most get wrong

I’m Claire Ridgway, historian, author, and host of the Anne Boleyn Files & Tudor Society. If you enjoy deep ...