Gareth Russell writes fantastic, thorough and entertaining histories, and his latest book sees him turn his attention to James I and VI. We caught up with him to hear about his favourite books.

Queen James: The Life and Loves of Britain’s First King
By Gareth Russell
Published by William Collins

The book as . . . memory. What is your first memory of books and reading?  

I don’t have one clear first memory, except that they were everywhere. My grandmother had owned a bookshop in her hometown of Lurgan in Northern Ireland and, while she had sold it and retired by the time I was born, there were always books in her house. She encouraged me to read them aloud to her. She’d take a page, then I would. My parents read to me too, when I was very little – and we got book tokens at the end of each year in Sunday School, so there’d be a trip with Mum into Belfast to pick out a book. Books really framed my childhood, looking back on it. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader was a particular favourite.

The book as . . . your work. Tell us about your latest history Queen James. What did you want to explore in writing it?  

 I had written about an episode in James’s life for my previous book, The Palace, which is about the history of Hampton Court. During my research for that, I was fascinated by James VI. I felt there was a lot more to say about his life. I could not get the idea out of my idea, so it became my next book. I wanted to explore James’s life, in all its complexity and richness, as well as to see if there was something new, different and revealing about his love affairs, and there was. It was a thrilling history to tell.

The book as . . . inspiration. What is your favourite book that has informed how you see yourself?

The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. It’s a novel about a family of Sicilian aristocrats living through political turmoil in the 1860s. The way Lampedusa captured human nature is what makes a great novel. I have tried to learn the lessons it taught me about how misunderstandings can destroy relationships and how many of us can unintentionally be the co-authors of our own unhappiness. I think about that often. A brilliant book.

The book as . . . an object. What is your favourite beautiful book?

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. It’s the Folio Society’s edition, with illustrations by Julie Dillon. Knowing how much I had loved the novel when I first read it, my little godson’s parents bought me this copy as a gift. It’s beautiful.

The book as . . . a relationship. What is your favourite book that bonded you to someone else?

The last two or three Harry Potter novels. They were released at a time when I was ending parts of my education. Moving away. I fell in love for the first time. And those books felt like they were about chapters in teenagers’ lives that were closing. Also, nearly everybody was reading them as they were released – its characters and terminology became a kind of lingua franca with people who were reading them at the same time as I was.

The book as . . . rebellion. What is your favourite book that felt like it revealed a secret truth to you?

Into Exile by Joan Lingard. It’s the third in her series of novels about two teenagers, Kevin and Sadie – one Catholic, one Protestant – who fall in love and move away at the height of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. I was a child when I read it, but I remember how some of the conversations in the book felt like a window into a different world.

The book as . . . a destination. What is your favourite book set in a place unknown to you?  

I’ll cheat with two, since they’re both set in Istanbul, which I’ve never visited. But need to. They’re both non-fiction books. The first is John Julius Norwich’s Byzantium: The Early Centuries, about the birth of the Byzantine empire when the city was still called Constantinople. The second is Charles King’s Midnight at the Pera Palace, about history flowing in and out of a luxury Istanbul hotel between the end of the First World War and the start of the Second.

The book as . . . the future. What are you looking forward to reading next?  

They Flew by Carlos M. N. Eire. It’s a history of miracles and I’ve heard nothing but good things.

Queen James: The Life and Loves of Britain’s First King by Gareth Russell is published by William Collins, priced £25.00.