Elizabeth's Bedfellows: An Intimate History of the Queen's Court - Hardcover

Elizabeth, subtle and seductive, was also a warrior. Self-possessed, she was also owned by every gossip in Europe. Her virginity was a national asset, but a wasting asset as her reign progressed. Her body was the body politic, closely guarded but obscenely scrutinised, subject to adoration, speculation and threat. Anna Whitelock's skilful and detailed history will bring you closer than seems possible to this glittering, infuriating, fascinating woman (Hilary Mantel)

With the lively imagination of a dramatist and the rigor of an academic, Whitelock discards the chastity belt of conventional royal history and presents Elizabeth in terms of the intimate politics of her life (The Times)

Whitelock's fearless approach to Elizabeth is not like that of Essex. She, too, has burst into the bedroom and shown us the Queen in her most private state. This is an intimate history of the court and a brilliant history of intimacy (Frances Wilson, Mail on Sunday)

Whitelock brings a fresh eye to the significance of anecdotes and, in doing so, injects them with new life ... With this dazzling portrait of Mary's successor, she takes her place among the foremost - and most enthrallingly readable - historians of the Tudors (Miranda Seymour, Sunday Times)

A great story, told with wit and verve (John Gallagher, Sunday Telegraph)

An impressive and powerful debut (David Starkey on Mary Tudor)

Whitelock excels in her timely portrait of a religious fanatic (Frances Wilson, Sunday Times Books of the Year)

***** Anna Whitelock's greatest achievement is her portrait of Mary as a woman as well as a Queen ... complex and compelling (Anita Sethi, Independent)

Brilliant (Jenny Uglow, Financial Times)

A memorable portrait (Literary Review)