Definitive, concise, and very interesting...From William Shakespeare to Winston Churchill, the Very Interesting People series provides authoritative bite-sized biographies of Britain's most fascinating historical figures - people whose influence and importance have stood the test of time. Each book in the series is based upon the biographical entry from the world-famous Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. The Very Interesting People series includes the following titles: 1.William Shakespeare by Peter Holland 2. George Eliot by Rosemary Ashton 3. Charles Dickens by Michael Slater 4. Charles Darwin by Adrian Desmond, James Moore, and Janet Browne 5. Isaac Newton by Richard S.Westfall 6. Elizabeth I by Patrick Collinson 7. George III by John Cannon 8. Benjamin Disraeli by Jonathan Parry 9. Christopher Wren by Kerry Downes 10. John Ruskin by Robert Hewison 11. James Joyce by Bruce Stewart 12. John Milton by Gordon Campbell 13. Jane Austen by Marilyn Butler 14. Henry VIII by Eric Ives 15. Queen Victoria by K. D. Reynolds and H. C. G. Matthew 16. Winston Churchill by Paul Addison 17. Oliver Cromwell by John Morrill 18. Thomas Paine by Mark Philp 19. J. M. W. Turner by Luke Herrmann 20. William and Mary by Tony Claydon and W. A. Speck

• Preface
• 1. Upbringing and inheritance, 1491-1514
• 2. Wolsey as royal minister, 1514-1530
• 3. New ideas and a new minister, 1530-1532
• 4. Establishing the royal supremacy, 1533-1540
• 5. Henry VIII: the man
• 6. The realm reshaped
• 7. The royal legacy
• 8. The royal magnificence: images and reality
• Sources
• Index