The Elizabethans

A. N. Wilson was born in 1950 and educated at Rugby and New College, Oxford. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he holds a prominent position in the world of literature and journalism. He is an award-winning biographer and a celebrated novelist, winning prizes for much of his work. He lives in North London.

"With The Elizabethans, AN Wilson returns to his winning formula of a single-volume work in which he aims to paint "a portrait of an age." Like The Victorians, it's not exactly narrative history but still includes all the best anecdotes, while the gaps are filled with some broad-brush social background. Wilson retains his eye for amusing detail and at the same time skates impressively over swathes of intellectual history. It's easy to digest and it's stirring stuff." Evening Standard "The England Wilson describes is one of perennial fascination to readers of both history and fiction. It continues to draw scholars because this is where modern Britain was forged ... This is a book written in the style of Wilson's enormously successful The Victorians and will give pleasure to people who like a general overview history of a period ... for those who are content to revisit some well-known scenes, and encounter some surprises, there is much to treasure." Financial Times "These vignettes and their loving depiction of people and episodes are its strength. Wilson collects his material from impressively diverse sources ... there is no doubt about the overall power of the pictures he draws. Particularly when he is considering the great literary figures - Sidney, Spencer, Marlowe, Shakespeare - there is genuine excitement and empathy. Nor is there any doubt about the author's insight and capacity to make fruitful and original connections." Literary Review "The Elizabethans is Wilson's latest foray into narrative history. It follows hot on the heels of The Victorians, which earned him the title "master of the panoramic sweep". To go from one iconic, long-reigning queen to another is in a sense a natural progression and he proves equal to the task. His witty conversational style and eye for period detail bring the brilliance and spectacle of the Elizabethan age vividly to life." Sunday Express "AN Wilson is a brilliant writer and this book is a compulsive read. He has the ability