Steven Veerapen is an author born in Glasgow and raised in Paisley.

Fascinated by the glamour and ghastliness of life in the 1500s, his books show a penchant for myths, mysteries and murders in an age in which the law was as slippery as those who defied it...

My Books

" Masterful plotting, vivid descriptions and engaging characters ..."

The Simon Danforth Series

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The Queen's Consort

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The Jack And Amy Cole Series

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Anna of Denmark

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Christopher Marlowe Spy Thriller Series

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Shakespeare in the North

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The Spycatcher Series

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The Anthony Blanke Mysteries

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Non-Fiction

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News From Steven

I am now deeply into Henry VIII’s reign. Following his gruelling adventures in Of Blood Descended, Anthony Blanke will return in 2023. This time, he will face murder and madness in Cardinal Wolsey’s court, when a visiting enemy of the lord chancellor is found stabbed to death with a fire poker. Famous faces to watch out for will include Sir Thomas More, Lord Henry Percy, and Anne Boleyn.

Additionally, on the nonfiction side, I’m turning my attention slightly from Anna of Denmark and working on a full-length biography of her husband, the profligate, bisexual, utterly endearing, endlessly infuriating King James VI and I – under the provisional title of The Private Life of King James. Expect scandal, murder, treachery, and masques.

Academic

Articles

My research interests lie predominantly in the field of early modern literature. In particular, I am interested in the pre-Stuart foundations of the verse libel and the legal machinations of the early modern state in licensing, censoring and banning texts in the pursuit of state-sponsored national narratives. I am also interested in the relationship between the British nations before, during and following the Reformation; their respective European links; and resultant literary representations of English and Scottish national identities.

Academic

European Unions: The Spanish Wife and the Scottish Widow in Shakespeare and Fletcher's Henry VIII and Ford's Perkin Warbeck

Published in 2017 in Early Modern Literary Studies and available here:

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Academic

Slanderisation and Censure-ship: When Good Texts Went Bad in Early Modern England

Published in 2017 in the Journal of the Northern Renaissance and available here:

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Academic

“What think you of this present state?”: Representations of Scotland and Scottish union in Robert Greene’s The Scottish History of James the Fourth and John Ford’s Perkin Warbeck

Published in 2016 in Early Modern Literary Studies and available here:

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Academic

The Legacy of the Will of Henry VIII in John Webster’s Sir Thomas Wyatt and Thomas Heywood’s If You Know Not Me, You Know Nobody

Published in 2013 in the Journal of the Northern Renaissance and available here:

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BLOG

My Thoughts

By Steven Veerapen

Elizabeth I: The Myth of the Makeup

The image of the elderly Virgin Queen that has been passed down to us is not always necessarily complimentary.

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By Steven Veerapen

Top 10 Tudor Villains

In this rogue’s gallery, I’ll be judging ten reputed nasties of the era and considering whether they deserve to be reviled or reassessed…

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By Steven Veerapen

Top 10 Tudor Myths

The Tudor era has spawned a welter of myths, legends, and misconceptions, some of which have been frustratingly long-lived.

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