Franny Moyle is a British television producer and author. Her first book Desperate Romantics was adapted into the BBC drama serial of the same title by screenwriter Peter Bowker. Her second book Constance: The Tragic and Scandalous Life of Mrs Oscar Wilde was published in 2011 to critical acclaim. In 2016 she released The Extraordinary Life and Times of J.M.W Turner.
'This is a great, thrusting codpiece of a book. It is big, bombastic and richly brocaded ... I take my feathered cap off to Moyle and her publishers. This is a triumph of book-making as well as biography. This sumptuous book is a jewel in its own right' * The Times * 'Evokes the painter and his world as vividly as a Holbein masterpiece. Beautifully written and illustrated, this book is a must for lovers of Tudor history' -- Tracy Borman 'Franny Moyle rediscovers the elusive man behind the most famous artworks in Tudor England. The King's Painter is full of insight into Hans Holbein's artistic process but also gives us a seat beside a man who had an access-all-areas pass to the most intimate circles in sixteenth-century Europe. This is a gorgeous book, to which I am sure I shall return again and again' -- Dan Jones 'One of the great strengths of Moyle's book is that it allows you to view Holbein's enormous versatility. Ambitious [and] sumptuously illustrated' * Spectator * 'Vivid, judicious and lavishly illustrated' * Sunday Times * 'A lavish, unflagging catalogue and summary of the state of our knowledge of Holbein' * Daily Telegraph * 'Vivid and engaging ... Drawing on extensive research, Moyle proves that Holbein was so much more than just a painter ... Although The King's Painter is fascinating for the fresh perspective it gives of the Tudor world, its greatest achievement is to bring Holbein out from behind his easel and shown him in all his brilliant, multi-faceted, human glory' * BBC World History Magazine * 'This fascinating account brings the Tudor era compellingly to life' * History Revealed * 'I devoured this book in days. It brings to vibrant, colourful life the man who gave us almost our entire visual understanding of Henry VIII and his court. Thoroughly researched and written with a verve and style that makes reading it like reading a good novel' * Aspects of History * 'The publisher Head of Zeus is acquiring a reputation for producing gorgeous-looking books. This life of Holbein is a case in point. Holbein's extraordinary life story is traced from Germany to the court of Henry VIII, where he painted the monarch in that famous power stance. Not all the paintings are so simple in their messages. The Ambassadors, with its mysterious stretched image of a skull, is typical of Holbein's tricksy style' * The Times *