John Guy

Thomas Gresham was arguably the first true wizard of global finance. He rose through the mercantile worlds of London and Antwerp to become the hidden power behind three out of the five Tudor monarchs. A story of adventure and jeopardy, greed and cunning, loyalties divided, mistaken or betrayed, this is a biography fit for a merchant prince. Five hundred years after Gresham's birth, now is the time to reckon up his legacy.

Charismatic, insatiable and cruel, Henry VIII was a king who became mesmerized by his own legend - and in the process destroyed and remade England. In this revealing account, John Guy looks behind the mask into Henry's mind to explore how he understood the world and his place in it.

Henry VIII's reign transformed the physical and spiritual landscape of England. Magnificent, tyrannical, a strong ruler, a 'pillager of the commonwealth', this most notorious of kings remains a figure of extreme contradictions: a devout traditionalist who oversaw a cataclysmic rupture with the church in Rome; a talented, charismatic, imposing figure who nevertheless could not bear to meet people's eyes when he talked to them. In this revealing new account, John Guy explores how Henry himself understood the world and his place in it - from his sheltered and increasingly isolated upbringing and the blazing glory of his accession; to his desperate quest for recognition, fame and an heir, and the terrifying paranoia of his last, agonising, 54-inch-waisted years - and in doing so casts new light on his choice of wives and ministers, his impact on the European stage, and his extraordinary legacy.

Thomas Becket lived at the centre of medieval England. He was befriended and favoured by Henry II and quickly ascended the rungs of power and privilege. His story is one of enigma, as well as of one of the most tumultuous periods in English history. Drawing on a vast array of contemporary records, personal letters and first-hand accounts, John Guy has reconstructed a compelling and convincing account of this most remarkable man, the dramatic times in which he lived and the pivotal role he played in his nation's history.