'Royal court intrigue at its finest.' – Historical Writers Association
'A stunning novel about the birth of the United Kingdom that demonstrates the scholarship of the author, as well as her imaginative power.' – Richard Holloway
George Heriot, jeweller to King James VI and I, moves with the Court from Edinburgh to London to take over the English throne. It is 1603. Life is a Babel of languages and glittering new wealth. The Scottish court speaks Danish, German, Middle Scots, French and Latin. King James gives Shakespeare his first secure position, and to calm the perfidious religious tensions, he commissions his translation of the Bible.George becomes wealthier than the king as he creates a fashion for hat jewels and mingles with Drummond of Hawthornden, Ben Johnson, Inigo Jones and the mysterious ambassador Luca Von Modrich... However both king and courtier bow before the power invested in their wives.
Show more'Royal court intrigue at its finest.' – Historical Writers Association
'A stunning novel about the birth of the United Kingdom that demonstrates the scholarship of the author, as well as her imaginative power.' – Richard Holloway
George Heriot, jeweller to King James VI and I, moves with the Court from Edinburgh to London to take over the English throne. It is 1603. Life is a Babel of languages and glittering new wealth. The Scottish court speaks Danish, German, Middle Scots, French and Latin. King James gives Shakespeare his first secure position, and to calm the perfidious religious tensions, he commissions his translation of the Bible.George becomes wealthier than the king as he creates a fashion for hat jewels and mingles with Drummond of Hawthornden, Ben Johnson, Inigo Jones and the mysterious ambassador Luca Von Modrich... However both king and courtier bow before the power invested in their wives.
Show moreJean Findlay was born in Edinburgh and studied Law and French at Edinburgh University and theatre in Cracow, Poland. She has worked as a playwright and as a journalist has written for The Scotsman, The Guardian, The Independent, and the BBC. She is the author of Chasing Lost Time - The Life of C. K. Scott-Moncrieff, Soldier, Spy and Translator published in 2014 by Chatto & Windus, London 2014, by Vintage paperback 2015 and by FSG, New York 2015, and now Picador 2023. For writing The Queen's Lender she won a Hawthornden Fellowship 2017 and a Lavigny International Fellowship 2018.
It’s rare that I have such an immediate response to, and impression
made by, a work of fiction but occasionally a novel comes along
which is that pleasurable you almost feel compelled to return
immediately to the first page and begin again. That is the minimum
level of praise that The Queen’s Lender warrants; in all honesty,
it deserves a great deal more. If this novel does not win a major
award in the next publishing cycle, it will be a travesty and a
disservice to the talents and intelligence of the author. I’m
effusive and unashamed in writing such a review. Meet George
Heriot, the Queen’s Lender. Based in Edinburgh, Heriot is a
goldsmith by trade, royal-appointed jeweller and subsequently a
philanthropist. A detail which the author brings to attention is
that the role of the goldsmith in the seventeenth century was not
just to produce jewels and precious metals but also to fulfil a
number of other financial services to the monarch, thus Heriot
becomes the Queen’s Banker. Mr Heriot holds the ear of the Queen as
well as the purse strings, and both provide him with sufficient
information and strategic knowledge to ensure that his fortune is
made, yet despite this he serves dutifully and ably. Discretion
sits well with debt in this case and whilst Heriot is depicted as a
loyal servant, the reader is in no way deluded that Heriot’s main
priority is the preservation of himself and his family.
Heriot ascends the ranks of the court, initially selling items to
Anne of Denmark (Queen Consort) before his appointment to serve the
Queen. Anne’s reputation for her love of jewellery is portrayed
well, as is the lavish spending which was undertaken by her and
James VI. What is significant about this portrayal of Heriot is the
manner in which it illustrates how his philanthropic activity and
considerations were borne out of concerns about the spendthrift and
extravagant nature of the monarchy’s activities. He hears: ‘the
Masque of Blackness … cost over £100,000 – enough to build a
palace, or to educate the whole of Edinburgh.’ It is at this point
Findlay is able to offer Heriot’s counterpoint to the significant
wealth he accrues and benefits from due to such expenditure.
Findlay is able to depict the tales of each critical member of the
ruling family and their critical roles in the formation of the
United Kingdom with a tenderness and humanity that is often
markedly juxtaposed against the violence and brutality which
characterised the court of James VI of Scotland. The young boy
subjected to a brutal glossectomy for praying with a rosary is a
harrowing but tender scene that sticks long in the
memory. Anne’s lack of financial acumen, James’s
paranoia about witchcraft and his subsequent purging of East
Lothian, the appointment of the grandiloquent Shakespeare as Court
Playwright and the broader commentary on the relationship between
Europe and the United Kingdom gives this novel a timely resonance
on the principles that history doesn’t repeat itself, it simply
rhymes. As Ben Jonson is heard to say: ‘We English need separation,
independence, none of your wet alliances with Spain … England has
never liked Europe … We do not need them, we can fight the world
alone.’ From the need to move away from one’s home in order to
prosper to the political division and nepotism which dominates,
this astute piece of fiction is both in and out of its
time. The elegance of Findlay’s documenting this figure
is enhanced by the laser-focused attention to his troubled private
life as a father and husband who was often bereft of his wife and
children by circumstances beyond his control, including death in
childbirth and a childless marriage. At the point of Union and
James I’s decision to move to London, we see Heriot’s concern as to
the consequence of his wife’s travelling to London. This is a
sequence where Findlay’s ability to bring the subject of her
fiction to life, a touching and humane set of exchanges where the
dialogue and scene-setting is delightful. She excels in conveying
the environment and interrelationship between that and the emotions
experienced by the characters, whether the reader is in the privacy
of the Queen’s own chamber, a pungent fishmonger within the lively
atmosphere of an Edinburgh street, an aromatic garden, or a
claustrophobic and unsettled cabin in a ship sailing at the mercies
of sea. There is much more that could be said about The Queen’s
Lender but this will hopefully sufficiently whet the appetite for
the sumptuous feast of fiction that lies ahead for curious readers.
Mr Heriot’s legacy has lived on through Heriot’s Hospital, George
Heriot’s School and Heriot-Watt University. I expect that
reputation to be burnished by this marvellous account of his life
and the circumstances in which he lived.
*'The Queen's Lender' by Jean Findlay*
In The Queen’s Lender Jean Findlay gives us a wonderful insight
into life in 17th century Edinburgh and London, and in particular
the extravagant, intrigue-ridden, courts of James Stuart and his
Danish consort, Anna.The story begins in 1593, when both the King’s
and George Heriot’s wives are pregnant. Queen Anna, who is
just 17 years old, loves jewels, and James – desperate for an heir
– is ready to indulge her every whim, so Heriot is a frequent
visitor to the palace. He and his own wife, Christian, live above
his workshop in Fishmarket Close.“It is past midnight and the Royal
Mile is brisk with life. Shouts and laughter, the hum of warm and
ribald talk in the tavern next door. A slice of fiddle music each
time the door opens…Fishmarket Close, a smelly wynd but narrow and
steep so the bones and guts from the fish shops will sluice
downhill in the rain.” Findlay excels in conveying the nature of a
place, be it the Queen’s own private chamber, an Edinburgh close, a
fragrant garden, or a claustrophobic cabin in a ship at sea. We are
there, we smell the flowers and the fish, we see the
vomit. Heriot’s life will run in parallel with Anna’s; for he
is not only an acclaimed jeweller, who loves precious stones for
their beauty rather than their acquisition, but also a canny man of
business. Through all the ups, and the many downs, of his working
life he will keep meticulous accounts, and he is shrewd in his
dealings with the court. No sooner has he made a new piece for Anna
or James than every courtier wants one; fashion is all. At the
palace clothes and jewellery convey not only rank and status; they
send messages. Everything is symbolic. Ambitious courtiers compete
to assert their importance; Heriot charges them in advance,
and far more than he charges the King. His wealth increases. Anna
gives his rings as gifts to visiting ambassadors; his work is seen
all over Europe. Anna, meanwhile, has no idea about money, so
Heriot lends it to her. It comes back to him as payment for his
work, and he still owns the debt, carefully recorded in his
ledgers. He becomes, in fact, her private banker. George may bear
physical similarities to Anna’s James: “But (he is) a much gentler
version, and one that listens.“ And there is one more glaring
difference: Heriot balances his books, while the King and Queen
spend with reckless abandon, which in the end cannot fail to lead
to trouble.
These are violent times and the King is permanently suspicious (as
well he might be, given the fate of his mother, Mary Queen of
Scots) and, especially after visiting his in-laws in Denmark,
obsessed with the dangers of witchcraft. He sends ‘witch hunters’
out into East Lothian to track down these wicked females. He orders
witch trials and tortures, and interrogates the accused women
himself. He even writes a book about it, Daemonologie (which later
provides material for Macbeth.) Later, at masques in London, armed
guards protect him. He and his courtiers speak in riddles, never
quite meaning what they say. When, on James’ accession to the
English throne, the Scottish court (and the Heriots) move to
London, William Shakespeare becomes Court Playwright, and we are
made even more aware of the fashion – and the need – for
elliptical, oblique, dialogue. This is the way business
is done, and life is led, at court.“All is seen. All is known. They
are all being watched.“Most of the characters in this story are
real, from the King himself to Shakespeare, Ben Jonson and Inigo
Jones. A few have been invented for the good of the story, but so
well imagined are they that they are every bit as convincing as the
names with which we are familiar. Chief among them is Lady Marjorie
Boswell, top rank manipulator and George’s wife’s sister-in-law. He
handles her with extreme caution and keeps Christian away from
her:“A queen bee must not only succeed herself, she must arrange
that other women fall.” But perhaps Lady Marjorie is simply doing
what she can with the hand she’s been dealt; she reminds me a
little of Becky Sharp. For when Findlay looks at the position of
women in the 17th century, very little of it is good. Queen Anna
may live a privileged life, but in return she must churn out
potential heirs at a rate of knots – for many will not survive. She
has no privacy, even in childbirth – instead the room is full of
courtiers (to make sure the baby is not a ‘switchling’) who sit
around eating, drinking and chatting while she endures her labour.
For them it is theatre. For Anna, it is agony. She thinks of the
‘witches’ she saw tortured and burned in her native Elsinore. Many
women die in childbirth, many infants are stillborn or die in
infancy. Midwives and other women who help women are frequently
accused of witchcraft – Anna dreads this happening to her own
midwife. And even if mother and child survive, a queen’s babies are
not her own. They are immediately dispatched into the care of
others. Anna’s Henry is sent to the Earl of Mar at Stirling Castle,
partly for his education, partly for his protection. These are
dangerous times. Politics, and especially political relations
between European countries, must be considered, and improved, at
all times to avoid war (James is all for peace) and protect trade.
But, as is said over four centuries later, it’s complicated. Spain
wants an allegiance with Scotland to put James on the English
throne, and marry Prince Henry – James’s heir – off to a Spanish
princess. But Spain is a Catholic country, and James has renounced
his Catholic faith, partly to impress Elizabeth I, though he treads
a fine line, and loathes Puritans. (Anna is less keen to give up
the faith she was born to; James receives constant complaints about
this, with the courtiers even saying that Anna’s favourite
gentlewoman must be a Catholic ‘because her brother is a poet’…)
Catholics are persecuted; an horrific incident on a journey from
Edinburgh to to London illustrates all too well what vicious
cruelty such persecution can take. In an effort at appeasement (for
he sees himself as a version of Solomon, and takes his Divine Right
to rule very seriously) James commissions his own translation of
the Bible; needless to say, more arguments ensue. In the taverns,
Ben Jonson hears talk that may ring more than a few modern bells:
‘We English need separation, independence, none of your wet
alliances with Spain….England has never liked Europe….We do not
need them, we can fight the world alone.’ When the court moves to
London, relations between James and the English courtiers are not
always smooth. They mistrust him and struggle with his Scots
dialect; they automatically assume that England is more important
and powerful than Scotland. Anna’s name must be changed to Anne.
James, in turn, packs Ben Jonson off to walk to Scotland, and
insists on having porridge for breakfast. As the court’s
extravagance reaches new heights, Heriot – who profits greatly from
the King and Queen’s excess – begins to question this flagrant
waste; there are, he knows, much better uses to which money could
be put; “Heriot hears that…the Masque of Blackness..cost over
£100,000 – enough to build a palace, or to educate the whole of
Edinburgh.” The seed of an idea is sown. And as Heriot’s eventful
life draws to a close, he makes the plans that will lead to the
foundation of a school and also a hospital: “The main school will
be called a hospital to cure the faitherless bairns as well as
teach them. They cannot learn if they are sick.” The Queen’s Lender
may be set in the 1600s, but its themes still resonate today. It is
about power, suspicion, religious strife, persecution and
conspiracy, but it is above all a very human story, one of love,
loss, suffering and endurance, and of a thoroughly good man, the
benefits of whose philanthropy are still felt in 21st century
Edinburgh. In the words of the King’s Fool: “Curtain rise, and
curtain fall, but the story goes on, and nothing finishes. A most
enjoyable book, fast-paced, informative, gripping and beautifully
written, The Queen’s Lender by Jean Findlay will be published by
Scotland Street Press on 14 February 2022.
*The Edinburgh Review*
Jean Findlay’s The Queen’s Lender is a novel set in history, but
fortunately for the lover of fiction, the book doesn’t read like a
historical text. In fact, events unfold themselves in the most
effortless way—as if the reader is witnessing a play instead of
reading silent words. Findlay’s characters are serious, like King
James; extravagant, like Queen Anne; loyal and generous, like the
protagonist George Heriot; cunning and calculating, like Lady
Marjorie; and quite often also funny, like The Fool. In other
words, these characters are the real deal, and Lady Marjorie seems
so authentic that readers will be surprised to find out she’s, in
fact, Findlay’s invention, but only in the sense that it’s more
probable for individuals with Marjorie’s temperament to have
existed at court, rather than not; in this way, she is real,
meaning the novel reads like good fiction should—it’s measured yet
assertive, intellectually stimulating yet entertaining, and best of
all funny without being grotesquely comical. From the very
beginning, readers find themselves engrossed in the world of George
Heriot: He’s Queen Anna’s favorite jewel maker, and in time becomes
not only her confidante, but also the royal family’s money
lender—hence the title of the book. Although readers will benefit
from acquainting themselves beforehand with Elizabethan and
Jacobean England, the novel can certainly be read without a minor
historical background. Through her use of plot, dialogue, setting,
and description, Findlay is able to situate the reader—and this
very comfortably—right into the main action. The most wonderful
thing about this book is that readers may not have intended to
think historically, but they will invariably make discoveries,
simply through the pleasure of reading the book alone. At the same
time, those already quite familiar with the history of James VI of
Scotland and I of England, will see things in a new light,
precisely because of Findlay’s good sense to tell this story from
the perspective of George Heriot—an asymmetrical but aesthetically
appealing choice; and so, the best praise one can bestow on
Findlay’s novel is that it’s like discovering the story of Beowulf
through the eyes of Grendel, in the sense that while figures like
James, Anna, Shakespeare, and Ben Johnson might already be very
familiar to most, their story, like Beowulf’s, is rarely, if at
all, told from a perspective other than their own. By using George
Heriot as the eyes and ears of the court, Findlay uses her skills
as a novelist to offer precisely this “new” perspective on a set of
“familiar” historical events. In other words, what John Gardner did
for Beowulf, Findlay has done for one of the most fascinating
historical periods of the UK. The novel begins so in Edinburgh,
1593: “A pregnant woman is a fragile being, and George has two on
his hands. His wife who keeps reminding him she is his queen and
his Queen who is in fact his queen.” From this sentence alone,
readers can already get a small glimpse of Findlay’s witty, yet
straightforward prose style. As the plot progresses, we find
ourselves in a domain of shifting alliances, the birth and death of
children, along with elation and grief; in this respect it’s also
important to mention that while Findlay is leading us through a
world inhabited mostly by the aristocracy and gentry, the
jubilations and troubles we encounter in this milieu very much
resemble our own. The concern, for instance, many of us have
faced—to remain safely at home or leave our places of comfort in
search of greater opportunity—isn’t an existential burden
restricted to the realm of the upper-class. It’s a question many of
us will face at some point in our own lives. George Heriot now has
to decide whether he will follow his king to London, and thereby
become the official jeweler of the court, or remain in Edinburgh,
the city he loves and cherishes. As we read on, a world much like
our own reveals itself, full of divisions, rivalries, loyalty, and
betrayal. In empires divided by religious affiliation, what will
King James do? He can give in to the charms of his Bohemian
ambassador and support a Protestant faction in a land ruled by the
Hapsburgs, who are, in fact, supported by Spain—not only a Catholic
country but also an ally to James. He can also remain loyal to
Spain, but with this loyalty he will lose the support of not only
the admired Bohemian ambassador, but also the entire Protest
faction in that land, which he represents. While many of us will
never have to undertake decisions that could influence the fate of
entire nations, the existential burden of having to make difficult
choices, where competing interests make it impossible not to offend
those loyal to us, is something utterly and totally a part of our
lives. Findlay, as a historically aware novelist, has managed to
capture the essence of a fascinating moment in time, but she has
also done more than that: She has taken this history and presented
it in such a way that the people within it could be individuals of
our own time—characters we’ve met ourselves. Take, for example,
Lady Marjorie’s son. He’s an aristocrat, but one whose supposedly
excellent breeding won’t allow for the politeness to take “no” for
an answer. He attempts to sell George Heriot a horse the way a used
car dealer won’t stop haggling a “customer” who has accidentally
wandered onto the lot. Though Heriot says he does not want “nor
need a horse,” the good aristocrat won’t quit until he receives a
little compensation for the animal which that good jeweler once
hired from the nobleman’s father. While we, ourselves, may not have
been sold horses, and surely not that way, readers will
nevertheless recognize the very same traits which cause our own
contemporaries to sell us something with the same haughtiness—most
likely a different, more efficient mode of transportation, such as
the aforementioned car. And then there are characters like Lord
Lennox and Lord Douglas—trendsetters, but not their own; they
follow the trends of the most important people. When the former
hears about “the buttons recently designed for the King’s jacket,”
he naturally “wants some for himself,” naturally to wear them “only
the day after the King wears them in public,” out of courtesy, of
course; the latter meanwhile, also “wants buttons like the King’s,”
but this time the trend has changed, and it has become “amethyst
and gold.” Heriot, of course, like a good businessman, charges
everyone upfront, except the royal family. It’s, hence, the
seemingly “minor” situations in the novel which show us a world
much like our own—a world full of greed, conformism, nepotism, but
also of joy, family, and loyalty. Findlay’s attention to detail is
what really allows the story to come alive within the grand scheme
of the history she situates her work in. Everything in this novel,
as the late Harold Pinter used to say about good drama, has been
“cut to the bone.” There’s no superfluous description or tedious
dialogue that would make the reader stop and ask: Why? What purpose
does this serve in helping me understand the larger aspects of the
work? Her previous experience of working in theater is most likely
what allowed Findlay to approach her fiction audience with a
theater mentality. Just like one cannot expect someone to endure a
tedious performance lasting one or two hours, it’s even more
unreasonable to expect such patience when the effort is more
solitary and lasts some days. Suffice it to say, with this novel
Findlay has certainly earned the reader’s days.
*International Literary Quarterly*
‘The Queen’s Lender’, Jean Findlay’s latest novel, is a
page-turner. I recommend it to all those interested in
the turbulent years of the reign of James 6th of Scotland and 1st
of England. The cover design by Antonia Shack is
inspired by a portrait of Anne of Denmark by an unknown
artist. Within its 201 pages, the world of Queen Anne
and her husband King James is brought vividly to life.
The story illuminates the life George Heriot through a host of
characters, many of them speaking in the Broad Scots tongue in
dramatic contrast to those speaking English. Jean Findlay is
a master wordsmith and the novel’s storyline is revealed at
breakneck speed. The text ascends to the condition of
poetry and enabling me to see ‘Jingling Geordie’ not so much as a
moneylender but as a gifted craftsman. Also, I can now
see him in relation to the world of William Shakespeare, Ben
Johnson and William of Hawthornden, all inhabiting a world where
death stalks in the form of plague, brutal execution and the perils
of childbirth. The chapter entitled ‘Sea Voyage’
dramatically reveals the terrors of the sea as George Heriot’s
first wife Christian Heriot sails from Edinburgh to London in
unimaginable pain and discomfort in which she endures agony of
losing her two children, drowned in the tempestuous North Sea
waters. Every politician in Scotland’s Parliament
should read this unforgettable novel. It should be
required reading for every Scottish schoolchild.
*Letter*
I love the character of George Heriot and felt a real ache at the
end when he hopes for death and he longs to head to the woods... so
lyrical and poetic! That, coupled with the setting of the royal
court... the feeling that I am learning something of James V1’s
reign and character and the sheer poverty and cruelty of that era..
the appalling scene for example when George comes across the boy
whose tongue has been cut out for praying with a rosary. I love the
way Fraser pops in characters like Shakespeare and imagine
exchanges..: The dialogue is especially good - Findlay has a real
ear for language. And I have discovered a huge amount about
jewellery too. A triumph and highly recommended.
*Amazon Review*
It’s rare that I have such an immediate response to, and impression
made by, a work of fiction but occasionally a novel comes along
which is that pleasurable you almost feel compelled to return
immediately to the first page and begin again. That is the minimum
level of praise that The Queen’s Lender warrants; in all honesty,
it deserves a great deal more. If this novel does not win a major
award in the next publishing cycle, it will be a travesty and a
disservice to the talents and intelligence of the author. I’m
effusive and unashamed in writing such a review. Meet George
Heriot, the Queen’s Lender. Based in Edinburgh, Heriot is a
goldsmith by trade, royal-appointed jeweller and subsequently a
philanthropist. A detail which the author brings to attention is
that the role of the goldsmith in the seventeenth century was not
just to produce jewels and precious metals but also to fulfil a
number of other financial services to the monarch, thus Heriot
becomes the Queen’s Banker. Mr Heriot holds the ear of the Queen as
well as the purse strings, and both provide him with sufficient
information and strategic knowledge to ensure that his fortune is
made, yet despite this he serves dutifully and ably. Discretion
sits well with debt in this case and whilst Heriot is depicted as a
loyal servant, the reader is in no way deluded that Heriot’s main
priority is the preservation of himself and his family.
Heriot ascends the ranks of the court, initially selling items to
Anne of Denmark (Queen Consort) before his appointment to serve the
Queen. Anne’s reputation for her love of jewellery is portrayed
well, as is the lavish spending which was undertaken by her and
James VI. What is significant about this portrayal of Heriot is the
manner in which it illustrates how his philanthropic activity and
considerations were borne out of concerns about the spendthrift and
extravagant nature of the monarchy’s activities. He hears: ‘the
Masque of Blackness … cost over £100,000 – enough to build a
palace, or to educate the whole of Edinburgh.’ It is at this point
Findlay is able to offer Heriot’s counterpoint to the significant
wealth he accrues and benefits from due to such expenditure.
Findlay is able to depict the tales of each critical member of the
ruling family and their critical roles in the formation of the
United Kingdom with a tenderness and humanity that is often
markedly juxtaposed against the violence and brutality which
characterised the court of James VI of Scotland. The young boy
subjected to a brutal glossectomy for praying with a rosary is a
harrowing but tender scene that sticks long in the
memory. Anne’s lack of financial acumen, James’s
paranoia about witchcraft and his subsequent purging of East
Lothian, the appointment of the grandiloquent Shakespeare as Court
Playwright and the broader commentary on the relationship between
Europe and the United Kingdom gives this novel a timely resonance
on the principles that history doesn’t repeat itself, it simply
rhymes. As Ben Jonson is heard to say: ‘We English need separation,
independence, none of your wet alliances with Spain … England has
never liked Europe … We do not need them, we can fight the world
alone.’ From the need to move away from one’s home in order to
prosper to the political division and nepotism which dominates,
this astute piece of fiction is both in and out of its
time. The elegance of Findlay’s documenting this figure
is enhanced by the laser-focused attention to his troubled private
life as a father and husband who was often bereft of his wife and
children by circumstances beyond his control, including death in
childbirth and a childless marriage. At the point of Union and
James I’s decision to move to London, we see Heriot’s concern as to
the consequence of his wife’s travelling to London. This is a
sequence where Findlay’s ability to bring the subject of her
fiction to life, a touching and humane set of exchanges where the
dialogue and scene-setting is delightful. She excels in conveying
the environment and interrelationship between that and the emotions
experienced by the characters, whether the reader is in the privacy
of the Queen’s own chamber, a pungent fishmonger within the lively
atmosphere of an Edinburgh street, an aromatic garden, or a
claustrophobic and unsettled cabin in a ship sailing at the mercies
of sea. There is much more that could be said about The Queen’s
Lender but this will hopefully sufficiently whet the appetite for
the sumptuous feast of fiction that lies ahead for curious readers.
Mr Heriot’s legacy has lived on through Heriot’s Hospital, George
Heriot’s School and Heriot-Watt University. I expect that
reputation to be burnished by this marvellous account of his life
and the circumstances in which he lived.
*The Bottle Imp*
The most surprising thing about Findlay’s fictionalized history of
the court of King James Vl is its length. Historical novels tend to
be colossal in size, laden—and sometimes weighed down—with facts
and descriptions. But Findlay’s nimble work clocks in at less than
200 pages without losing any of its appeal...She leaves the reader
wishing for more which is really all a writer can hope for.
*Kirkus*
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