James I: The Wisest Fool What makes a good king? What, for that matter, makes a good leader? Nowadays, we might identify qualities such as charisma, presence, and – one would hope – intelligence in decision-making and genuine care for the wellbeing of the people...
Steven Veerapen
The Pirate Menace, by Angus Konstam
Few other outlaw groups in history have left such an enduring legacy as the seafaring pirates of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In The Pirate Menace, Angus Konstam explores how, when, why, and where the world’s most infamous (and many lesser known) pirates...
Episode 139
Of Judgement Fallen, by Steven Veerapen
Our hapless hero, son of the king’s late black trumpeter John Blanke, is once again pressed into service as a spy by Cardinal Wolsey, the second most powerful figure in the land. Wolsey is pre-occupied with preparations for the forthcoming opening of Parliament at...
Great & Horrible News, by Blessin Adams
As a former policewoman, Blessin Adams is well aware of the human cost of murder. In Great and Horrible News, this moving nonfiction study, she investigates the crimes that shook Tudor and Stuart England. In doing so, she approaches her cases forensically: and what a...
Episode 113
Kings & Queens with Iain Dale | RSS.com
Fiction Book of the Month: Steven Veerapen on The Queen’s Fire
The Queen’s Fire is the third instalment in the Christopher Marlowe series, how does this novel differ from the first two in the collection? The difference between this book and the previous ones is two-fold, I think. For one, Christopher Marlowe is, for once, dragged...
Episode 101
Elizabeth I with Steven Veerapen | RSS.com
The Royal Secret, by Andrew Taylor
The Stuart era is currently undergoing something of a rebirth in historical fiction, with authors turning their keystrokes to the long-reviled and much-decried Stuarts. Andrew Taylor has been amongst the vanguard in reassessing and promoting this era as the...
Episode 83
Greatest Tudor Myths with Steven Veerapen | RSS.com