The book contains her letters, poems, speeches and personal prayers, some in translation from the original French and Latin of courtly and diplomatic use. Elizabeth's writing style could be formal and florid, or snappy and playful. If she had lived now she could have been a novelist! There are public speeches, official correspondence and personal letters to friends, together with poems on subjects such as her failed engagement to the Duke of Alencon etc. These are arranged chronologically by period, with each type of document split into sections accordingly. Most have been previously published in one form or another, but although some are available on the web, a collection has not been in print for some time.

The 'scholarly bit' was a little self-glorifying, instead of concentrating on the woman they were studying, Elizabeth Tudor, and the information supplied was not always strictly accurate. There are also extant letters or copies of letters that no longer exist which were not mentioned at all, and there aren't sufficient historical notes for someone who knows nothing of the period.

The greatest shame about this is that it was not produced by some British Institution, say the British Library, for instance, about ten or twenty years ago, who might have done it a little better. I am surprised no-one thought of doing this since Harrison's edition.

I bothered a couple of friends who don't much like history into reading this and they loved it! All in all a fascinating read I'd recommend to anyone.