Adventurer, soldier, courtier, poet, prisoner – outsider. Drawn by ambition to Elizabeth’s court, Walter Raleigh soon becomes the queen’s favourite. But his meteoric rise attracts the enmity of powerful rivals.

Sir Francis Walsingham, the queen’s spy master, proves a dangerous enemy. While the Earl of Oxford is an equally dangerous friend.

Even Elizabeth’s favour is an uncertain gift. It can be withdrawn on a whim as easily as it is granted and earns him as much trouble as it does profit. Seeking gold for his queen and glory for himself, Raleigh launches a series of ever more reckless adventures. The ultimate prize he dreams of is the fabled city of Eldorado in the New World.

After Elizabeth’s death, Raleigh fails to find favour with the new king and is imprisoned in the Tower. To restore his reputation, he embarks on his most desperate venture yet. By now an old and broken man, he risks everything to discover the city of his dreams.

“An extraordinary excursion into the past by a master storyteller. I have never read a book quite like it, nor admired a book so much.”

Michael Gregorio, author of Critique of Criminal Reason

“In impressively muscular prose strongly reminiscent of Hilary Mantel, R N Morris packs the entire life of Sir Walter Raleigh into one breath-taking volume. This stunning tale grips from the first line to the last, brims with dazzling images, vivid characters, electric dialogue and unforgettable action.”

Peter Tonkin, author of A Verse To Murder

“This spell-binding story of Elizabeth I’s infamous favourite brings the adventurous, dangerous, and glittering world of late-Elizabethan England to life.”

Steven Veerapen, author of A Dangerous Trade