English-born Alastair Bellany was educated at Oxford and at Princeton, NJ. He was a lecturer at Stanford University, 1995–6, and is the author of several articles in both journals and edited books. The Politics of Court Scandal is his first book.

• List of illustrations; Acknowledgements; Note on quotations and dates; List of abbreviations; Introduction: poison in the fountain - understanding the politics of Jacobean court scandal; 1. The court politics of the Overbury scandal; 2. News culture and the Overbury affair; 3. The sins of the Overbury murderers; 4. 'The powder poison': popish plots and the Overbury scandal; 5. Stamping the print of justice? Vengeance, mercy and repentance; 6. Afterlives: the Overbury affair as history and memory; Bibliography; Index.

'… this is such an interesting book and one with so many important insights to offer … The Politics of Court Scandal in Early Modern England is a truly interdisciplinary book, one whose approach to early modern culture should be a welcome provocation to historians and literary scholars alike.' Early Modern Literary Studies