Here are some of the books I consulted when I was researching Fortune’s Hand. They range from biographies of Raleigh (or Ralegh as he is more ‘correctly’ spelled) and other notable figures of the period, to general histories and studies of specific aspects of the life at that time.
It’s by no means an exhaustive list. But as I said here, the purpose of my reading was to kickstart my imagination. I was not writing a PhD.
The Favourite: Ralegh and His Queen, Mathew Lyons (Constable) (The first and best book I read on Raleigh. Not a complete biography but a brilliant portrayal of his relationship with Elizabeth I.)
Sir Walter Raleigh in Life and Legend, Mark Nichols and Penry Williams (Continuum)
Sir Walter Ralegh, Robert Lacey (Phoenix Press)
Sir Walter Raleigh and His Times, Charles Kingsley (various editions)
Ralegh’s Last Journey, Paul Hyland (HarperCollins)
Who Killed Walter Ralegh?, Richard Dale (The History Press)
Elizabeth the Queen, Alison Weir (Vintage)
The Pirate Queen: Elizabeth I, Her Pirate Adventurers, and the Dawn of Empire, Susan Ronald (HarperCollins)
The Cradle King, A Life of James VI & I, Alan Stewart (Vintage)
Majestie: The King Behind the King James Bible, David Teems (Thomas Nelson)
The Arch-Conjuror of England John Dee, Glynn Parry (Yale)
The Queen’s Conjuror: The Science and Magic of Dr Dee, Benjamin Woolley (HarperPress)
Elizabeth’s Spymaster, Robert Hutchinson (Weidenfield and Nicolson)
Dunne: The Reformed Soul, John Stubbs (Penguin)
Sir Martin Frobisher: Seaman, Soldier, Explorer, Talisin Trow (Pen and Sword)
Dr Simon Forman: A Most Notorious Physician, Judith Cook (Vintage)
My Just Desire: The Life of Bess Ralegh, Wife to Sir Walter, Anna Beer (Ballantine)
Sir Philip Sidney: Complete Works (Delphi)
Edmund Spenser: A Life, Andrew Hadfield (OUP)
Elizabeth’s Bedfellows: An Intimate History of the Queen’s Court, Anna Whitelock (Bloomsbury)
The Watchers: A Secret History of the Reign of Elizabeth I, Stephen Alford (Penguin)
God’s Traitors: Terror and Faith in Elizabethan England, Jessie Childs (Vintage)
The Time Traveller’s Guide to Elizabethan England, Ian Mortimer (Vintage)
Elizabeth’s London: Everyday Life in Elizabethan London, Liza Picard (Weidenfield and Nicolson)
The Elizabethans, A. N. Wilson (Cornerstone)
The Elizabethan World Picture, E.M.W. Tillyard (Vintage)
Elizabeth’s Sea Dogs, Hugh Bicheno (Conway)
The Genius of Shakespeare, Jonathan Bate (Picador)
Soul of the Age: The Life, Mind and World of William Shakespeare, Jonathan Bate (Penguin)
The Huguenots in France, Samuel Smiles, (various editions)
Beyond El Dorado: power and gold in ancient Colombia, Elisenda Vila Llonch (The British Museum)
Roanoke: Solving the Mystery of the Lost Colony, Lee Miller (Cape)
The Creature in the Map: A Journey to El Dorado, Charles Nicholl (Morrow)
The Discovery of the large, rich and beautiful Empire of Guiana, Sir Walter Raleigh
Treasure, Treason and the Tower: El Dorado and the Murder of Sir Walter Raleigh, Paul R. Sellin (Ashgate)
Under the Bloody Flag: Pirates of the Tudor Age, John C. Appleby (The History Press)
Tudor Sea Power: The Foundation of Greatness, David Childs (Seaforth)
Voyages and Discoveries, Richard Hakluyt (Penguin)
Whitehall Palace: The Official Illustrated History, Simon Thurley (Merrell)
Windsor Castle: The Official Illustrated History, John Martin Robinson (Royal Collection Trust)
The Elizabethan Tower of London: The Haiward and Gascoyne plan of 1597, Anna Keay (London Topographical Society)
Food in History, Reay Tannahill (Penguin)
Impossible Journeys, Mathew Lyons (Folio Society)
The Visual History of Costume, Aileen Ribeiro and Valerie Cumming (Batsford)
The Encyclopaedia of World Costume, Doreen Yarwood (Batsford)
Costume & Fashion: A Concise History, James Laver (World of Art)
London: A Social History, Roy Porter (Penguin)
The London Encyclopaedia, Ben Weinreb and Christopher Hibbert, eds (Papermac)
The Penguin Dictionary of Historical Slang, Eric Partridge, abridged by Jacqueline Simpson (Penguin)
Foxe’s Book of Martyrs
Raleigh’s poetry
Shakespeare’s plays
Spenser: The Faerie Queen