From King Henry VIII to Queen Elizabeth II, via the introduction of the Classics, a duel at Ascot, the first steeplechase, a Derby Day fraud, a huge Cambridgeshire gamble, the desolation of Fred Archer, a thousand-mile walk around Newmarket Heath, the greatness of Ormonde and Sceptre, Man o’ War’s record-breaking runs, National Velvet and Emily Davison, to the brilliance of Lester Piggott, Tony McCoy and Frankel, Peter May has selected over one hundred days that encapsulate five hundred years of the Sport of Kings.
Peter May was born and raised in Scotland. He was an award-winning journalist at the age of twenty-one and a published novelist at twenty-six. When his first book was adapted as a major drama series for the BCC, he quit journalism and during the high-octane fifteen years that followed, became one of Scotland's most successful television dramatists. He created three prime-time drama series, presided over two of the highest-rated serials in his homeland as script editor and producer, and worked on more than 1,000 episodes of ratings-topping drama before deciding to leave television to return to his first love, writing novels.