Hereford MP Jesse Norman has two political biographies under his belt; now he brings his first novel, The Winding Stair, an epic historical tale of intrigue, power and jealousy in the court of Elizabeth I.
The Queen is dying and James I is waiting to accede. But who will thrive, and who will fail, under the new King? Will it be the scholar Francis Bacon, whose brilliant mind is the envy of the court? Or his hated rival Edward Coke, already acclaimed as the greatest lawyer of his generation?
The Winding Stair tells the gripping story of these two founders of our modern world and their bitter struggle for influence and power. It brings the palaces, parlours, parliaments and royal courts of Elizabethan and Jacobean England to life, giving a peerless view into the lives, thoughts and deeds of its protagonists.
Combining humour, wit and imagination with deep research, this novel is a dazzling synthesis of history and fiction that takes the genre to new places: an epic tale of jealousy and intrigue, which also holds a darkened mirror to our own contemporary politics.
Suzannah Lipscomb, a professor who really knows her Tudor onions, says, "This immensely clever, elegant and captivating novel shows just how closely fiction can align with history."
If you're not one for trusting experts, the how about Stephen Fry? "Remarkable... An engrossing and compelling blend of political thriller and pitch-perfect historical novel."
Jesse will be joining us nearer 5 than 4 due to his commitments at both Hay Festival and How The Light Gets In.
TICKETS
This is an unticketed event as we are running an author signing/reading at 4 o’clock daily during Hay Festival (more details to follow).
At North Books, 4 Castle Street, Hay-on-Wye on Sunday 28 May, between 4-5pm.
THE AUTHOR
Jesse Norman has been the MP for Hereford and South Herefordshire since 2010. He played a critical role in the UK response to the Covid-19 pandemic as Financial Secretary to the Treasury from 2019 to 2021. He also informally advised his wife Kate Bingham on her work as chair of the Vaccine Taskforce. He is currently Minister of State in the Department for Transport.
Jesse has degrees in classics from Oxford University and philosophy from UCL (MPhil and PhD), where he also researched and taught philosophy. He has held honorary fellowships at UCL and St Andrews and was elected as a Two-Year Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford, in 2022.
Jesse is the author of two widely acclaimed biographies: Adam Smith: What He Thought, and Why it Matters, which won a Parliamentary Book Award in 2018, and Edmund Burke: Politician, Philosopher, Prophet. The Winding Stair is his first novel.