The Queen’s Conjuror by Benjamin Woolley, HarperCollins, £15.99, ISBN
0002571390
WHY is there such unflagging popular interest in Elizabethan England? Perhaps
because, for all the alienness of their world, the Elizabethans seem to have so
much in common with ourselves. Benjamin Woolley’s biography of Queen Elizabeth’s
personal philosopher, Dr John Dee, handsomely captures a society torn between
rationality and romance, cynicism and hero worship.
For the rational enquirer, honest curiosity is never enough: you also have to
know which tiny fragments of your experience will respond to rational study. And
woe betide you if you pick your subject poorly. Dee…
