JAMES I OF ENGLAND By Clara and Hardy Steeholm
Those who like what is called romantic biography—a mixture of fact and fiction—will find Mr. and Mrs. Steeholm's book on James I (Michael Joseph, 15s.) a creditable example of its kind. The authors have taken' unusual pains to describe James's Scottish period, and here, with the incessant plots and kidnappings amid which James. learned to rule, there is little need to embellish the truth so as to make an exciting tale. Whether in the second Gowrie conspiracy the king was so innocent as the authors suggest may be doubted. When the scene changes to England, they are less- successful—not for lack of scandals such as the Oyerbury affair but rather because they do not explain the political situation clearly enough or distinguish between the rival Court factions. Mistaken
references to " Frances Essex " or " Lady Frances Essex " for Frances, Lady Essex, Somerset's evil genius, are pardonabl perhaps, but James's Court needed closer study than the authors have given it. However, they do not err, like so many bi- graphers, in underestimating the King's intelligence, and devote a good many pages to his literary efforts as well as to his shrewd diplomacy.
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