There have been a number of biographical studies of Sir Walter Raleigh in recent years, but none have been as sensible, scholarly and meticulous as this one. The narrative provides the reader with few new surprises and Raleigh remains as much the enigma and showman as ever. There is still little evidence of his early life and his religious beliefs are shrouded in mystery. We still do not know when Raleigh was born, although 1554 seems the most likely date, making him the same age as Edmund Spenser, who may or may not have been a close friend. Certainly we can be sure that Raleigh read a great deal in his youth. We cannot be sure that he ever met Christopher Marlowe, links with whom have been taken as proof of his atheism. Thomas Harriot, a client of Raleigh's, certainly held heterodox beliefs, but does this mean that Raleigh shared them? As Nicholls and Williams point out, Harriot was moving more towards the earl of Northumberland, who might well have been much closer to Harriot in his unorthodox religious faith. Or, perhaps, he was wary of Raleigh after his fall from grace because of his marriage, and needed another means of support. More is forthcoming about the circulation of his manuscripts, the provenance of which is expertly analysed. It is likely that Raleigh gave his Cynthia manuscripts to Sir Robert Cecil, hoping that he would pass them on to Elizabeth and so help win him back her favour. However, they probably remained in Hatfield House until they were discovered later, Sir Robert deciding that ‘they were not the most appropriate form of petition to the Queen’ (p. 151). Raleigh's letters suggest that he was far more involved in conspiracies against James than his supporters generally acknowledge, which might well help to explain his histrionic suicide attempts. Soon after he was condemned, undoubtedly expecting to lose his life, Raleigh tried to stab himself in the heart with a table knife, an action that some observers thought nearly ended his life, while others saw only a flesh wound result. It would be interesting to know whether the act, rare enough in the early seventeenth century, tells us anything about Raleigh's supposedly heterodox religious beliefs, but the archive is silent. Raleigh's stock rose in the last years of his life: his legend grew even before he died. It is possible, Nicholls and Williams suggest, that John Webster is condemning Raleigh's treatment in The white devil when he ‘likens whores to “those brittle evidences of law/Which forfeit all a wretched man's estate/For leaving out one syllable?”’ (p. 233). It is clear that the poems ‘acquired prestige and perhaps selling-power by virtue of Raleigh's name’ (p. 247), which has caused considerable confusion for subsequent editors. The history was also widely admired by later readers because, as the editors conclude, it was seen to be ‘vigorous, hard-edged and muscular’ (p. 273). Overall, this is a distinguished work which will become the standard version of the life.