Sandra Byrd

Sandra Byrd writes historical fiction that places women close to the political and religious pressures of Tudor England. To Die For follows Meg Wyatt, imagined as Anne Boleyn’s childhood friend and later companion at Henry VIII’s court. Howard Books issued the novel in 2011 as the opening volume of Byrd’s Ladies in Waiting sequence. Its fuller edition title, To Die For: A Novel of Anne Boleyn, makes the historical focus explicit, while Meg’s viewpoint lets Byrd explore loyalty, conscience, friendship, and the hazards of proximity to royal power. The series later turns to Katherine Parr and Elizabeth I, giving each volume a different woman’s perspective on the Tudor household. Byrd has worked across historical fiction, contemporary fiction, and books for younger readers, and she also coaches and edits other writers. In this novel, documented figures and events provide the frame, but Meg’s interior life supplies the emotional center and distinguishes the book from a conventional account of Anne Boleyn.