Buxton International Festival: Jesse Norman

The Winding Stair

The Winding Stair is a tale of ambition and revenge set in the courts of Elizabethan and Jacobean England. It tells the story of a bitter struggle for influence and power between two of the most brilliant men of the age: the scholar Francis Bacon, whose genius is the envy of the court, and his hated rival Edward Coke, the greatest lawyer of his generation. Jesse Norman, a former Paymaster General, brings the palaces, parlours, parliaments and royal courts of Elizabethan and Jacobean England vividly to life, giving a peerless view into the lives, thoughts and deeds of their protagonists.