The life of Honor, Lady Lisle, follows a dizzying narrative arc. Born into a West Country family, her second marriage propelled her into Anne Boleyn's court, as the new step-aunt to Henry VIII.  Her husband, Arthur, was the illegitimate son of Edward IV, bearing the dangerous surname Plantagenet, one of a few survivors of the old regime. At his side, Honor witnessed tumultuous change in England, before heading out to run the Tudor enclave of Calais. Her surviving letters speak of a happy family, domestic arrangements, clothes and food, as well as including snippets of news about Henry's...