Queen James by Gareth Russell

A BBC History magazine, Esquire, Historia magazine and Waterstones History Book of the Year

‘James comes alive in full flamboyance … Russell expertly weaves the bedchamber gossip into the tapestry of a tumultuous reign’ SUNDAY TIMES

‘Brings the backbiting and power struggles of the Jacobean court to life with wit and vigour’ OBSERVER

‘A warts and all story told with compassion’ PHILIPPA GREGORY

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‘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.

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‘Books like this don’t come along very often. Told with Gareth Russell’s characteristic verve and exquisite eye for detail, it is a story so compelling and surprising that it feels as if it has been hiding in plain sight for 400 years. A stunning achievement and a must for history fans everywhere’ TRACY BORMAN

About the Author: Gareth Russell read Modern History at St Peter’s College at the University of Oxford and completed his postgraduate at Queen’s University, Belfast with a study of Catherine Howard’s household. He has written for the Sunday Times, Tatler and the Irish News and is the author of two novels set in his native Belfast and several books on royal history. He divides his time between Belfast and New York.

12 Feb 2026
 

Queen James: The Life and Loves of Britain’s First King by Gareth Russell ISBN 9780008660895