Queen James: The Life and Loves of Britain's First King (Hardback) - Gareth Russell

'Books like this don't come along very often... a story so compelling and surprising that it feels as if it has been hiding in plain sight for 400 years' TRACY BORMAN 'A warts and all story told with compassion' PHILIPPA GREGORY

'Books like this don't come along very often... a story so compelling and surprising that it feels as if it has been hiding in plain sight for 400 years' TRACY BORMAN

'A warts and all story told with compassion' PHILIPPA GREGORY

'Elizabeth was king,

Then James was queen.' - English author (1603)

James Stuart, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland did not always love wisely, but he never failed to do so boldly.

He fell in love three times - with a Scottish lord, a knight and George Villiers, 'the handsomest man in the whole world'. He was infatuated three more times - with a Highland earl, a Welsh lord and an English spy.

We know so much about the six wives of Henry VIII, why not the six loves of James I?

This groundbreaking new book puts James - genius, liar, spendthrift, idealist, witch-hunter - and the men he loved at the centre of one of the most dramatic stories in British royal history.

Beginning with the brutal and mysterious murder of his father in 1567, James's life encompassed kidnapping, witchcraft trials, torture, his mother's beheading, poison, political radicalism, religious fundamentalism, a queen's alleged abortion, passionate sex, strong love, stronger hate, espionage, brothels, and a decade-long love affair that ended in assassination.

It is unquestionably one of the most gripping stories in British history, retold in Gareth Russell's Queen James with scholarship, biographical insight and wit.

About the Author

Gareth Russell is an historian and broadcaster. His books include Young and Damned and Fair, The Ship of Dreams, and Do Let's Have Another Drink. He is the host of the podcast Single Malt History with Gareth Russell and he divides his time between Belfast and London.