Queens and Kings

The wildly engaging new history of the British monarchy from bestselling historian Lucy Worsley.

Fabulously enjoyable... a great big treat of a book.SUNDAY TIMES
Filled with nuggets of historical delights... highly readable and thoughtfully curated.DAILY MAIL
A glorious, glorious book, full of brilliant detail and behind-the-scenes wit and humour. KATE MOSSE

Lucy Worsley has lived and breathed royal history for more than twenty years. As Chief Curator of Historic Royal Palaces, she worked in some of Britains most famous royal sites, from Hampton Court to the Tower of London, and even lived in one of them herself. Now she takes us behind closed doors to reveal some of the monarchys best-kept secrets.

In Queens and Kings, Lucy brings to life the rulers who have shaped Britain over the last thousand years, from Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn to Queen Victoria and Elizabeth II. What emerges is a royal world far stranger, funnier and more surprising than we might think: of intimate love letters, phantom pregnancies, unruly pet monkeys and fatal betrayals. Venturing through haunted staircases and into private bedchambers, she finds the details that make history feel gloriously human.

With her trademark warmth and incisive scholarship, Lucy explores the full splendour, scandal and sorrow of royal life. The result is a wildly engaging history of the monarchy from one of our most beloved historians.

A history of the British monarchy that only Lucy Worsley could have written. TOM HOLLAND

Warm, insightful, and full of heart, Worsley has distilled a lifetime of experience into this crowning achievement of a book. HALLIE RUBENHOLD

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Queens and Kings was a Sunday Times bestseller in the w/c 07-09-2026.