Fortune My Foe

The Life of a Legend 

Respected author Geoffrey Trease gives a unique insight into the life of Sir Walter Raleigh, charting his rise to fortune, his fall from grace and everything in between.

Once a trusted courtier, next a convicted criminal, Raleigh was at once beloved and despised…he led a life unlike any other.
Trease tells a true-life adventure story, reliably building characters, setting and action from historical evidence. 

From his boyhood in Devon and his growing ambition and determination to make his fortune, Raleigh was a man of action and ability, equally home at sea or in court.

Fortune my Foe is an enlightening historical account of a man who achieved greatness through adversity and enjoyed few of the fruits of success.

“Geoffrey Trease has certainly got the knack. He can write for young people, in this case mainly for teenagers, without being obvious. The excitement is there where fact permits. So is the lucidity, with events all round the world fitting smoothly into their proper place and time” - The Daily Telegraph 

“I found it a fascinating book. I wish that all history books were so inviting and intelligent.” - Naomi Lewes, BBC 

“History at its most agreeable and readable.” - Time and Tide 

Geoffrey Trease (1909-1998) was the author of more than one hundred books, including children’s books. He revolutionised children’s literature and was one of the first authors to deliberately appeal to both boys and girls through strong leading characters of both genders. In 1966 Trease won the New York Herald Tribune Book Award for This is Your Century. Geoffrey Trease was educated at Oxford University and travelled widely in Europe and beyond. He lived in Herefordshire on the slopes of the Malvern Hills.