Well-informed, fluid and fascinating

Gerard DeGroot, The Times

A refreshing break with the Anglo-centricity of so much recent writing on James VI and I

Michael Questier, TLS

Provocative . . . Whitelock offers a fresh way of understanding not only the Jacobean commercial revolution but also the origins of Great Britain's great colonial enterprise

Kathryn Hughes, Mail on Sunday

Anna Whitelock proves a sure-footed and eloquent guide to James's reign . . . What is striking when one reads this primer is that, exactly four centuries after James's death, Britain finds itself once again playing catch-up, uncertain of its place in the world, and lacking the kind of identity that was forged in the seventeenth century

Paul Lay, Oldie

A majestic, brilliant account of the birth of an empire. Spectacularly good

PETER FRANKOPAN, author of The Silk Roads

Does away with conventional royal biography. This rich and evocative book takes us far from Whitehall in pursuit of James' ambitious vision for a united, global Britain. Moving from the plantations of Ireland and trading posts in Indonesia to the courts of Japan and Russia, the book shows us the strange birth of an empire and pushes beyond anglocentric history

Alice Hunt, History Today, Books of the Year