'Superb . Everything we think we know about Elizabeth is wrong' -- Andrew Roberts 'A novel portrait of a complex - maybe even unknowable - queen' -- John Gallagher, Guardian The authoritative new portrait, focusing on the unknown later years and bases -- incredibly -- on new documents. History has pictured Elizabeth I as Gloriana, an icon of strength. Now, after years mining long-overlooked archives, and making fresh use of Elizabeth's many letters -- some newly discovered -- John Guy sweeps away myths and introduces us to a refreshingly unfamiliar Elizabeth: at once powerful and vulnerable, wilful and afraid. In this gripping narrative, John Guy reveals the woman behind the polished veneer, racked by insecurity, often too anxious to sleep alone, and captures with dramatic immediacy the challenge of being both a woman and a queen. This is the real Elizabeth, for the first time. 'A triumph of storytelling and scholarship' -- Jessie Childs, Telegraph.