Lucy Hughes-Hallett
LUCY HUGHES-HALLETT
the SCAPEOAT: THE BRILLIANT BRIEF LIFE OF THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM (2024)
George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, was the lover, confidant and gatekeeper of King James I. When Charles I succeeded his father, Buckingham remained equally influential. Buckingham was extremely good looking, was an excellent horseman, and a canny political operator. He parlayed these talents into great wealth and power. He was, however, to have a dramatic fall from grace.
Lucy Hughes-Hallett paints in vivid colours Buckingham’s extraordinary 17th century world of royal courts, exquisite clothes, gender fluidity, and primitive medicine.
The Times wrote of Lucy Hughes-Hallett’s biography: ‘Vivid, erudite and sympathetic … The Scapegoat shows that [Hughes-Hallett’s] eye for the seamy realities of an extraordinary life is as sharp as ever
THE AUTHOR
Lucy Hughes-Hallett is was awarded the Samuel Johnson Prize for The Pike, a biography of Gabriele d'Annunzio. Her other books include Cleopatra: Histories, Dreams and Distortions and Heroes: Saviours, Traitors and Supermen. Lucy Hughes-Hallett, who lives in London is also a literary critic and a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. She worked for ive years as a feature writer on Vogue magazine, and also as a television critic for the Evening Standard.
