The Double Life of Doctor Lopez. Spies, Shakespeare and the Plot to Poison Elizabeth I.

Advance Reading Copy. 8vo. Pp. xi, 402. Pictorial wraps in printed dustjacket. Colour plates, b/w double-spread map.

The story of Roderigo Lopez, a crypto-Jew born in Portugal in 1525, and personal physician to Queen Elizabeth I, who was executed for treason in 1594 amidst an atmosphere of heightened anti-Semitism. Supposedly the inspiration for Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.

"The Double Life of Doctor Lopez is a brilliant book. Green handles the fiendishly complicated plot with great deftness and brings to the story an expert understanding of the Elizabethan world view. But what really stuns is the quality of Green's writing, which manages to be elegant, precise and rich at the same time. His is a major talent." –Mail on Sunday