Exile: Rosemary Goring with Lesley McDowell

Writer Lesley McDowell chats to Rosemary Goring about her new book, Exile: The Captive Years of Mary, Queen of Scots.

From the moment Mary, Queen of Scots set foot on English soil in 1568 until her execution in February 1587, she was the prisoner of her cousin, Elizabeth I. Unlike Mary’s time on the Scottish throne, the dramatic events of these years – almost half her life – took place while she was a captive.

A compelling true story of treachery, deceit, hope, and despair, Exile draws on the latest research to shed fascinating new light on her imprisonment and the charged political climate of the period. Reading like a 16th-century thriller, Rosemary’s account is a penetrating and enthralling psychological portrait of one of history’s endlessly fascinating queens.