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Leanda de Lisle rss

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His dark materials

3 March 2012
The Arch-Conjuror of England: John Dee Glynn Parry

Yale, pp.336, 25

Like the dyslexic Faustus who sold his soul to Santa, the life of John Dee was a black comedy of errors. His vain and vulgar efforts to harness the occult… Read more

Against all odds

1 October 2011
Winter King: The Dawn of Tudor England Thomas Penn

Allen Lane, pp.480, 20

There is something of Gordon Brown in the older Henry VII: an impression of darkness, of paranoia and barely suppressed rage, not to mention the terrifying tax grabs and tormenting… Read more

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Progress at a price

7 April 2010
Vietnam: Rising Dragon Bill Hayton

Yale, pp.272, 20

I was sitting recently with a former US marine by one of the huge open windows on the top floor of the Caravelle Hotel in Saigon. Our drinks were being… Read more

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A Tudor mystery unravels

7 April 2010

The fate of Lady Mary Grey, Queen Elizabeth’s prisoner and a potential heir to the throne, has never been resolved. Now Leanda de Lisle tells all At the Prime Minister’s… Read more

A keen sense of duty

2 July 2008

William Cecil, Lord Burghley, would be delighted that in his historical afterlife he remains the old man he died as, after 40 years of power. The frail flesh and white… Read more

The return of the maypole

30 May 2007
Return of the King: The Restoration of Charles II Charles Fitzroy

Sutton, pp.252, 20

The return of the king follows a death. As the Lord Protector of the three kingdoms draws his last breath a great storm rises up, blowing down houses, trees and… Read more

The plot thickens

2 May 2007
The Noble Revolt: The Overthrow of Charles I John Adamson

Orion, pp.742, 25

John Adamson’s The Noble Revolt asserts the crucial role of political ideas in the coming cataclysm of the English civil war. His focus is close: the 18 months before the… Read more

Leanda de Lisle

7 June 2006

Researching the dead can feel like being buried alive with them. After months spent with manuscripts and dusty books about the 16th century I even look like a corpse. But… Read more

Leanda de Lisle

14 May 2005

The trouble with country life is that it is so unhealthy. Where I used to walk to the Tube I now take the car. Where I used to go out… Read more