Queen’s Conjuror

A spellbinding portrait of Queen Elizabeth’s conjuror – the great philosopher, scientist and magician, Dr John Dee (1527–1608) and a history of Renaissance science that could well be the next ‘Longitude’.

Reviews

‘Fresh and original…Woolley thinks and writes beautifully. This is a distinguished and rather brilliant book – it’s also a rattling good story.’ Lisa Jardine
‘A fascinating, brilliant account of the Renaissance world picture…’ Kathryn Hughes, New Statesman
‘Woolley handsomely captures a society torn between rationality and romance, cynicism and hero worship.’ New Scientist
‘An informative and enlightening book. It offers concise and lucid explanations of Dee’s more abstruse and arcane theories. And it is immensely enjoyable, its narrative exciting and inexorable. I have not read as stimulating a study of the Elizabethan period since Charles Nicholl’s book on Marlowe, “The Reckoning”.’ Thomas Wright, Daily Telegraph
Praise for ‘The Herbalist’:
‘The research is superb – rich, detailed, and original – and the lives Benjamin Woolley describes are as passionate as the great events of the English Civil War around which they orbit.’ Adam Nicolson