Even thoiugh this is the period of British history with which I am most familiar, I still learned a great deal from this well written book. It works as a biography for both Drake and Elizabeth. I was especiallly engrossed with Drake's circumnavigation, whihc I had previously known little about, other than it happened and he explored the whole from woulod later become the California, Oregon and Washington coast. I also did not know the full extent of his success as a pirate on this voyage with many millions in today's dollars liberated from the Spanish. The court intrigue is as interesting as court intrigue gets for me, but I would have enjoyed more detail on the techniques Drake used so successfully to subdue all those ships without any serious difficulties. The Spanish Armada sections were also enlightening. I had forgotten the devastation wrought by the weather on the Spanish ships and the superior range of English cannon. Of course, everyone knew about the speed difference. ( )