Mary Queen Of Scots : The True Life Of Mary Stuart - By John Guy ( Paperback )

About the Book

Soon to be a major motion picture from Focus Films, a biography, "as enthralling as a detective story," (New York Times) of the woman who reigned over sixteenth-century Scotland.

Book Synopsis

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE
starring Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie
"As enthralling as a detective story." -- New York Times Book Review

In Mary Queen of Scots, John Guy creates an intimate and absorbing portrait of one of history's most famous women, depicting her world and her place in the sweep of history with stunning immediacy. Bringing together all surviving documents and uncovering a trove of new sources for the first time, Guy dispels the popular image of Mary Stuart as a romantic leading lady--achieving her ends through feminine wiles--and establishes her as the intellectual and political equal of Elizabeth I.
Through Guy's pioneering research and superbly readable prose, we come to see Mary as a skillful diplomat, maneuvering ingeniously among a dizzying array of factions that sought to control or dethrone her. It is an enthralling, myth-shattering look at a complex woman and ruler and her time.

"The definitive biography . . . gripping . . . a pure pleasure to read." -- Washington Post Book World

First published in 2004 as Queen of Scots

Review Quotes

"As enthralling as a detective story."--The New York Times Book Review

"Recent royal shenanigans look tame compared with what John Guy unearths."--Entertainment Weekly

"The definitive biography . . . gripping . . . a pure pleasure to read."--The Washington Post Book World

"Reads like Shakespearean drama, with all the delicious plotting and fresh writing to go with it."--The Atlantic Constitution Journal

"Spirited and satisfying. . . . Guy's account has all the twists and turns of a good thriller--and plenty of horror, too."--Kirkus Reviews

"A triumph of biography, artistry, and historical detective work. John Guy has produced a masterpiece, full of fire and tragedy."--Amanda Foreman, author of Georgiana

"[An] absorbing biography . . . meticulously researched . . . scholarly and intriguing."--Peter Ackroyd, The Times of London

"Rarely have first-class scholarship and first-class storytelling been so effectively combined."--Daily Telegraph

"A definitive biography. . . . Reads as thrillingly as a detective story, and is rich in detail and authoritative in its analysis."--The Sunday Times

"I couldn't put this book down. . . . Never before has [Mary's story] been told with such detail, accuracy, insight and drama."--Scotland on Sunday

About The Author

John Guy is an award-winning historian of Tudor England. A Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, he is also the author of A Daughter's Love: Thomas More and His Dearest Meg; Thomas Becket: Warrior, Priest, Rebel; and a landmark, bestselling history of Tudor England.