Majestie

Majestie by David Teems is a shared biography of James 1st and The King James Bible. Written with a touch of the irreverant, Majestie is part tabloid, part history lesson, part speculation but is all King James.

Any biography of James Stuart is a study in paradox, it entertains as much as it informs. Intellectually astute, e can dazzle and charm with the polish of his rhetoric one minute, and speak with the vulgarity of a tavern bawd the next. David Teems describes him as an amusing mix of bombast and majesty, of smut and brilliance, sparkle and grime of foolishness and visionary headship. Only James, the all-too-human and flawed king could have given us the great book he did.

In the early years of his reign, James fashioned himself as the 'new Solomon', the pacifist prince entering the 'the land of promise', that is, the England inherited from his cousin Elizabeth 1st. But the milk and honey he expected was a mirage.

But in many respects, James still flirts with greatness. He was the first king of a united , or 'Great Britain.' Teems writes that for all his foibles, all his bungling, James possesses an evolved sense of majesty, a type of faith in majesty itself, and wants nothing more than for his new Bible to reflect this majesty, to gild and elevate the reign, to be the great medicine that might heal the realm.

Majestie is a personable and well crafted read and a comprehensive account of the colourful, witty, imperfect, sensuous, bawdy, and intelligent King. England has had no king like him, nor any book like the one he bequeathed us, before or since.