Set idyllically in the Cotswolds near the beautiful market town of Winchcombe, Sudeley Castle can claim over 1,000 years of documented history. Rich in royal associations that span from King Aethelred the Unready to the 20th century, the house is particularly rich in Tudor connections. Visited by King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, it later became home to Henry’s last wife, Katherine Parr, who is buried at Sudeley – the only instance of an English queen laid to rest at a private residence. Queen Elizabeth I later visited Sudeley on three occasions in an extravagant celebration of pomp and pageantry, but the castle’s glamorous heyday ended abruptly during the English Civil War when it was attacked and reduced to a ruinous state by Cromwell’s forces.

Sudeley was rescued from dereliction in the mid-1800s by the wealthy Dent-Brocklehurst family, who set about restoring and rebuilding the castle to form a comfortable Victorian residence that still embodied its Tudor character and features. Family members still live there today, and James worked closely with the present owner, Elizabeth, Lady Ashcombe, on a comprehensive history of the castle and the impressive list of historical characters with whom it is associated, published by Scala Publishers. The book gives a unique insight into one of Britain’s most fascinating privately owned castles.