A writer, soldier, politician, courtier, spy and explorer, Sir Walter Ralegh lived more lives than most in his own time, in any time. How did this fifth son of a Devonshire gentleman go on to ‘climb full high’ in Elizabethan England – and then fall? Prone to periods of extreme melancholy alternating with extreme activity, Ralegh hungered for life and longed for death. Always driven, and always consumed with wonder, he pored over maps, asking dangerous questions of the world around him. Once the Queen’s favourite, Ralegh was consigned to the Tower after a contested final chapter of bargaining, failure and betrayal. Patriot or Traitor presents his stranger-than-fiction life in all its richness.