The Conscience of the King: Henry Gresham and the Shakespeare Conspiracy [Hardcover]

'Intrigue, high-life and low-life are brilliantly interwoven in a thriller which has a compelling vividness and pungency. The historical details are utterly convincing; one can see and smell Jacobean England and hear its inhabitants speaking.' LAWRENCE JAMES 'Stephen has a good feel for the momentary decisions that can help to shape the course of history - as well, of course, as the cowardice, vainglory and greed' THE TIMES 'A terrific book' THE SPECTATOR

Standing history on its head, this is a real treat, both ingenious and supremely satisfying.

A splendid fast-moving yarn.

Martin Stephen writes utterly gripping novels...complex esionage and intrigue ... a very endearing hero ...marvellous evocation of the 17th century. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

It is 1612. Robert Cecil, Chief Secretary to King James I, is dying. Now the threat from the Catholics has decayed, the Puritan majority are gaining an increasing stranglehold over English society. Parliament is starting to flex its muscles against the King whose court drifts shamelessly towards decadence and corruption. And the great period of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama has ended with the abrupt retreat from public life of William Shakespeare. Then Henry Gresham is asked by Cecil's protege, Chief Justice Sir Edward Coke, to trace a precious hand-written play manuscript that has gone missing, presumed stolen by a Cambridge bookseller. Gresham has no cause to realise that he is being used as live bait to draw out a murderous madman who is determined to destroy James I, a madman who was supposed to have died twenty years before, or that he is set to unravel the truth behind the authorship of one of the greatest plays the world has ever seen.

Martin Stephen is High Master of The Manchester Grammar School and author of 15 titles on English literature and military history. He is an experienced broadcaster and journalist who writes regularly for the broadsheets, the DAILY MAIL and the London EVENING STANDARD.