A good overview of the Virgin Queen's life, but Hibbert offers little new information or insight about Elizabeth I. Moreover, the author does not appear engaged with the source material, sometimes relying on long quotes and later poems written about Elizabeth than actually analyzing primary sources. Fortunately other biographies exist for this much-studied English queen. ( )

Hibbert's portrayal of Queen Elizabeth was, in my personal opinion was mediocre-- but that was because I have watched a ton of programs about her, so I knew a great deal about her life going in (Thank you Starkey). But his portrayal showed her as a queen / youthful woman who was intrigued with several boyfriends. Overall, it was okay. ( )

This is a very well balanced study of Elizabeth. I appreciate any work about Elizabeth that informs us about more than just her love life and struggle to stay on the throne. She was also a great queen in how she ran the country. The author does spend time on the less perfect parts of Elizabeth's personality, her vanity and cheapness. Very interesting. ( )

Pikced it up after watching the PBS/BBC series. The PBS series was better in the first half, but the book was better in the second.

meh. ( )

The well told story of a woman who became great merely by trying to survive. ( )