Anne Somerset

The Scottish Widow

'My Heart is My Own': The Life of Mary Queen of Scots

By

Fourth Estate 574pp £20 order from our bookshop

HOT ON THE heels of Jane Dunn’s wonderfully readable Elizabeth and Mary comes this biography of Mary Queen of Scots by John Guy. One might assume that another book on this subject would be superfluous, but it quickly becomes clear that this is far from the case. While not so elegantly written as Dunn’s study, this is a work of great importance, crammed with electrifying new material from archives in England, Scotland and France.

Sign Up to our newsletter

Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.

Follow Literary Review on Twitter

  • Last Tweets

    • 'It is one of those nice linguistic ironies that English should have attempted to make sex respectable by clothing… ,
    • 'He was to my mind the father of the idea that journalism – yes, even journalism – can have a moral dimension to it… ,
    • RT : Feeling old, as exhumes a piece I wrote 37 years ago. But a joy to see Kathy O’S there too. Here’s why:… ,
    • 'Enough of his character remains just out of reach for Barnes to relish the challenge of imagining him.' Patrick M… ,
    • RT : I did a thing about the new Penguin Book Of Oulipo for this month’s Literary Review: @Lit_Review,
    • 'Moore’s work has been so influential that the former ministers who provided him with much of his information now r… ,
    • 'Although he travels through time and space to find the best produce, his choices, delightfully, are not obvious.'… ,
    Follow Us