Lying Abroad - Carol Chillington Rutter, at Heffers Bookshop

Student, traveller, secretary, scoundrel, spy: introducing the maverick whose diplomacy saved Europe from war.

Henry Wotton had already exhausted several lives when he arrived in Venice as England's ambassador in 1604. Yet the most remarkable phase of his career was yet to come.

In Lying abroad, Carol Chillington Rutter tells Wotton’s extraordinary story. She reveals how this one-time exile, who fled England after his employer was convicted of treason, gained the favour of King James, securing a knighthood and a diplomatic posting. Charged with restoring relations with Venice after a fifty-year hiatus, he drew criticism for his breaches of protocol. But when a dispute brought Europe to the brink of war, Wotton took a risk – one that changed European history.

Carol Chillington Rutter is Emerita Professor of Shakespeare and Performance Studies at the University of Warwick. She is the author of numerous books and critical editions. In 2023 she was Visiting Fellow at Ca' Foscari, Università di Venezia

Dr Giulia Boitani is Wilkinson College Teaching Officer in French and Italian at King’s College Cambridge and Affiliate Lecturer in the Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics Faculty.

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