The First Elizabeth

With the special skill for which she is acclaimed, Carolly Erickson electrifies the senses as she evokes with total fidelity the brilliant colors of Elizabethan clothing and jewelry, the texture of tapestries, and even the close, perfumed air of castle rooms. Erickson demonstrates her extraordinary ability to discern and bring to life psychological and physical reality.

Carolly Erickson received her Ph.D. in medieval history from Columbia University. She is also the author of Great Harry, Alexandra, and Bloody Mary, among other books. She lives in Hawaii.

Widely acclaimed historian Carolly Erickson here reveals the legendary British monarch as a living, breathing, elegant, flirtatious, diplomatic, violent, arrogant, and outrageous woman. Good Queen Bess is made real, immediate, and human in this thorough biography, and so commands our attention and awe as never before.

Hailed in The New York Times Book Review as a vivid and eminently readable portrait of history's favorite Tudor, The First Elizabeth evokes with ample scholarship and careful fidelity the brilliant colors of Elizabethan clothing and jewelry, the texture of tapestries, and even the close, perfumed air of castle rooms--as well as the psychological and physical realities of the age.

Erickson is a great interpreter of history. She writes political history, but embeds it into social and, even more, humane history. She's likely to be the Barbara Tuchman of her generation.--David Herlihy, Harvard University

This biography is] even more readable and absorbing than the justly praised works of Tuchman and Fraser.--The Philadelphia Inquirer

A masterpiece of narrative, a story so absorbing it is as hard to put down as a fine novel.--Edward M. White, Los Angeles Times Book Review