Gareth Russell on Queen James: the Life & Loves of Britain's First King

_'ELIZABETH WAS KING,_ _THEN JAMES WAS QUEEN.' - ENGLISH AUTHOR (1603)_ Gareth Russell is an historian and broadcaster. His books include _Young and Damned and Fair, The Ship of Dreams_, and _Do Let's Have Another Drink_. He is the host of the podcast Single Malt History with Gareth Russell. Gareth joins us to talk on his new book_ Queen James: The Life and Loves of Britain's First King_. _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 Russell's _Queen James_ with scholarship, biographical insight and wit. _'Books like this don't come along very often. Told with 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' TRACY BORMAN_ _'A warts and all story told with compassion' PHILIPPA GREGORY_