Capturing a Queen: The Image of Anne Boleyn

Dr Owen Emmerson & Kate McCaffrey

Published 11 February 2026

Capturing a Queen is the first book to trace the five-hundred-year story of Anne Boleyn’s image – from the portraits created during her lifetime to the powerful, often mythic likenesses that have shaped how she is remembered today. Drawing on new research by Dr Owen Emmerson, including the identification of a previously unknown contemporary depiction of Anne, this richly illustrated study explores how her face has been interpreted, adapted, erased, and revived across the centuries.

The book accompanies the landmark 2026 exhibition at Hever Castle, which brings together the largest collection of artworks ever assembled under Anne’s name. Through close analysis of these portraits, alongside the surviving objects she once owned and the images crafted in her daughter Elizabeth I’s court, Capturing a Queen reveals how Anne’s likeness became a cultural touchstone – a symbol of power, piety, politics, and imagination.

From the Elizabethan rehabilitation of her reputation, to the Romantic-era reinvention of her beauty, to modern portrayals on screen and in scholarship, this book asks not only what Anne looked like, but why her appearance has mattered so profoundly. It challenges long-held assumptions about the destruction of her portraits, examines new scientific study of the iconic Hever Rose portrait, and invites readers to consider which surviving image might bring us closest to the real Anne Boleyn.

At its heart, Capturing a Queen is a study of memory: how a queen who fell from grace became one of the most recognisable figures in English history, and how her face – elusive, compelling, and endlessly reinterpreted – continues to fascinate.

Available from 11th February 2026, exclusively from Hever Castle’s Shop.