Patriot or Traitor?: The Life and Death of Sir Walter Raleigh

Sir Walter Ralegh lived more lives than most people of his own time, of any time. Prone to periods of extreme melancholy alternating with extreme activity, here was a liar who sometimes believed his own lies. Always driven, he was consumed with wonder as he paddled a canoe up the Orinoco. Ralegh was a man who pored over maps, asked dangerous questions of the world around him … and loved silk stockings. He had a hunger for life, a longing for death and a passion for words…

Sir Walter Ralegh’s life is romantic, irresistible and of central importance to early modern history. His death is a convoluted and contested tale of bargaining, failure and betrayal. Through the Elizabethan golden age and Ralegh’s famous adventures to the final act, Anna Beer presents his stranger-than-fiction life in all its richness.

How could a man once the Queen’s favourite find himself consigned to the Tower by her successor? Should his legacy be fame or infamy? Who was the real Sir Walter Ralegh?