Elizabeth

A beautifully rounded portrait of both the woman and the queen … This is a masterful biography. – Amanda ForemanA gripping story of Queen Elizabeth’s last years, authoritatively researched and engagingly recounted by the leading Tudor historian of our age – James Shapiro, author of 1599 and 1606One of the very best historians we have in the country … It is brilliant, vigorous history, and a triumph of storytelling and scholarship – Jessie Childs * Telegraph *Guy’s careful work with documents known and unknown, scattered throughout Europe’s archives, allows him to paint a novel portrait of a complex - maybe even unknowable - queen – John Gallagher * Guardian *The best biography ever written of the Virgin Queen - a revisionist, sensitive, compelling, majestic masterwork that you can’t put down – Simon Sebag-Montefiore * Evening Standard *A gripping story of Queen Elizabeth’s last years, authoritatively researched and engagingly recounted by the leading Tudor historian of our age. It will be of special interest to anyone interested in the political world in which Shakespeare’s Elizabethan drama is steeped-from anxiety over royal succession to England’s costly war in Ireland – James Shapiro, author of 1599 and 1606John Guy’s Elizabeth presents a beautifully rounded portrait of both the woman and the queen. Thanks to Guy’s prodigious use of previously untapped material, we see, for the very first time, the full panoply of ambition and insecurity, plotting and deceit that marked the middle years of her reign. This is a masterful biography. – Amanda ForemanAs you’d expect from John Guy, this is a very good read, a vivid and fascinating warts-and-all portrait of the ageing Elizabeth, backed by meticulous research – Claire TomalinOne of the very best historians we have in the country. Guy is in his element prising off the myths that are barnacled to the queen. It is brilliant, vigorous history, and a triumph of storytelling and scholarship – Jessie Childs * Telegraph *John Guy is arguably the world’s leading expert on Tudor history. When he writes a book, especially this, his first on Elizabeth’s life, it should be taken very seriously as having something new to say, and so it does … a wonderful book and a magisterial account of the latter half of Elizabeth’s reign that calmly reassesses every claim and myth by simply reading all the original manuscript correspondence. The result puts the record straight, but it also allows Guy to produce a pacy and compelling story – Jerry Brotton * Sunday Times *

John Guy is a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, and has published sixteen books, including My Heart is My Own- The Life of Mary Queen of Scots, Tudor England, Thomas More and The Tudors- A Very Short Introduction. He appears regularly on BBC Radio 2, Radio 3 and Radio 4 and has presented numerous television documentaries for BBC2. He regularly contributes to the Sunday Times, Guardian, Economist and The Times Literary Supplement.

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