Biography

John Guy was born in Australia in 1949 and came to England in 1952, growing up in Watford and Lancashire.

He studied history at Clare College, Cambridge, and became a lecturer on Early Modern British History and Renaissance Political Thought, in Britain and the United States. He has held academic positions throughout his career and is still a Fellow in History at Clare College, University of Cambridge, and an Honorary Professor at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland.

He is the author of many history books, including the popular textbook, Tudor England (1988), and My Heart is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots (2004), winner of the 2004 Whitbread Biography Award and shortlisted for the 2004 Biography/Autobiography of the Year Award in the US. Other books include Thomas More (2000); The Tudors: A Very Short Introduction (2000); A Daughter's Love (2008), on the daughter of Sir Thomas More; Thomas Becket: Warrior, Priest, Rebel, Victim (2012);  The Children of Henry VIII (2013); and a book in the Penguin Monarchs series: Henry VIII (2014). Elizabeth: The Forgotten Years (2016) was shortlisted for the Costa Book Award for Best Biography.

John Guy appears regularly on BBC Radio and has presented five documentaries for BBC2 television, including the Timewatch film, 'The King's Servant' and the four-part 'Renaissance Secrets'. He also writes reviews for various newspapers and magazines, including the Sunday Times, The Guardian and The Economist.   

Bibliography

Elizabeth: The Forgotten Years
Henry VIII
The Children of Henry VIII
Thomas Becket: Warrior, Priest, Rebel, Victim
A Daughter's Love: Thomas and Margaret More
My Heart Is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots
Thomas More
Politics, Law and Counsel in Tudor and Early Stuart England
The Tudors: A Very Short Introduction
The Tudor Monarchy
Cardinal Wolsey
The Reign of Elizabeth I: Court and Culture in the Last Decade
The Tudors and Stuarts
Tudor England
The Complete Works of St. Thomas More, Volume X: The Debellation of Salem and Bizance
Reassessing the Henrician Age: humanism, politics and reform 1500-1550
Christopher St. German on Chancery and Statute
The Court of Star Chamber and its Records to the Reign of Elizabeth I
Law and Social Change in British History
The Public Career of Sir Thomas More
The Cardinal's Court: the Impact of Thomas Wolsey in Star Chamber

Awards

2016
Costa Book Award for Best Biography (shortlist)
2005
Marsh Biography Award
2004
Whitbread Biography Award

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