The Palace: From the Tudors to the Windsors, 500 Years of History at Hampton Court

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'If a house could gossip, this is the book that Hampton Court would whisper. An enjoyable and readable stroll through 500 years of Hampton Court history: royal residents, common visitors, thieves, invaders and ghosts PHILIPPA GREGORY
For centuries, Hampton Court has been a place of power, scandal and intrigue: a stage for events that shaped the nation. The Palace raises the curtain on 500 years of British history with royals, politicians, criminals, and geniuses all playing their parts.

Hampton Court has been an arc of monarchy, revolution, religious fundamentalism, sexual scandals, and military coups. In this rich and vivid history, Gareth Russell moves through the rooms and the decades, each time focusing on a different person who called Hampton Court their home.

Beginning with the Tudors, Russell takes the reader from the kitchens of Henry VII and the dreams of Anne Boleyn to Elizabeth Is brush with death and the staging of Shakespeares plays. To the commissioning of the King James Bible, the republican victories of Oliver Cromwell, the many mistresses of Charles II and their laxative-laced attempts to embarrass one another. The gossip and feuds of Georgian aristocrats lead into the era of the Windsors when Hampton Court becomes the place to host Elizabeth IIs coronation ball and hide the last Tsars sister.

Fascinating and engaging, The Palace is as atmospheric as it is gossipy and through the many sovereigns and servants that lived and worked in its halls reveals the personal tragedy and political importance of this extraordinary place.

Reviews

EARLY PRAISE FOR THE PALACE

'If a house could gossip, this is the book that Hampton Court would whisper. An enjoyable and readable stroll through 500 years of Hampton Court history: royal residents, common visitors, thieves, invaders and ghosts Philippa Gregory

'Rollicking, gossipy and effortlessly learned, The Palace is what Hampton Court would say if its walls could talk. Gareth Russell is a born storyteller and this is a wonderful human history of one of Britains most captivating buildings.'
Dan Jones, bestselling author of The Plantagenets and Powers & Throne

Vibrant, exciting, enthralling a superb panoramic history, bursting with scholarship, wit and riveting detail. A beautifully written, fascinating book about those who have lived and loved at Hampton Court Kate Williams, author of Royal Queens

PRAISE FOR DO LETS HAVE ANOTHER DRINK

My favourite book of the seasona brief and highly selective biography of the QMconcentrating on good stories at the expense of all the guff along the way we learn some fascinating factsYou know you want this book, and I know you want it, and if youre very good Father Christmas might bring it for you The Spectator

Entertaining compellingit explains a lot about this most misunderstood of matriarchsshe put the backbone into a royal family that was floundering when she joined it. And she could be shocking and funny The Times

A warm, funny, and above all, sympathetic picture of a remarkable woman Russells skimming-stone biography has managed to capture both the laughter and the wisdom I raise a glass to him Daily Telegraph, Four star review

Utterly compelling This drink-infused, deliciously gossipy account of a privileged life is guaranteed to raise the spirits of anyone lucky enough to read it Anne Sebba, author of That Woman: The life of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor

Author Bio

Gareth Russell read Modern History at St Peter's College at the University of Oxford and completed his postgraduate at Queen's University, Belfast with a study of Catherine Howard's household. He has written for the Sunday Times, Tatler and the Irish News and is the author of two novels set in his native Belfast and several books on royal history. He divides his time between Belfast and New York.