Author:Evan S Connell
The year is 1095. The most prominent leaders of the Christian world have assembled in a meadow in France near Clermont. Pope Urban appeals for the liberation of Jerusalem and cries out Deus lo volt!, God Wills It! The cry is taken up, echoes forth and is carried on.Wave upon wave of Christian pilgrims rush to assault the growing power of Muslims in the Holy Land and will do so for the next two hundred years. Most able men become soldiers of the Cross, and when a man is prevented by old age or ill health, he sends his son. Women, too, go to fight alongside the men. It is a time of great adventure, of great exploration and cultural change. Uniting Christian Europe in a common cause, the crusades defined forever the spirit of the West.A magisterial recounting of this great and terrible campaign, Deus lo Volt! tells with stunning immediacy one soldier's first-hand experience of the defining war of Christendom.
Compellingly written and very even-handed. By far the clearest account of what happened in the Northern Ireland conflict and more importantly why it happened
—— Irish NewsExtraordinarily well-balanced, sane, comprehensive and rich in sober understatement
—— Cal McCrystal , Glasgow HeraldEven-handed, clearly written, and set to become one of the definitive works on the subject
—— Scotland on SundayFor those looking for a pragmatic understanding of the country known as Northern Ireland it is essential reading
—— John Coulter , Sunday Business PostHas anybody done more – done as much – as Frank McLynn in writing intelligent, combative, thoroughly researched and thoroughly readable history?
—— IndependentThis new biography is of profound importance and will ... quickly establish itself as the standard work on Hitler and his regime
—— Thomas Childers , Boston GlobeReading A. N. Wilson's The Victorians provides ongoing pleasure in handsomely researched, beautifully written prose about an age which we have come to think disparagingly. We thought wrong
—— Clement Freud , Mail on SundayThe Victorians was one of the books that gave me greatest pleasure during the past year... A brilliant evocation of an age
—— Ian McIntyre , The TimesRarely have author and subject been found in such deep and contented harmony... Wilson's tour de force
—— Robert McCrum , ObserverWilson's panoramic survey is the best attempt so far to describe and explain what was happening in that fascinating time
—— Literary ReviewThe Victorians finds Wilson writing at the height of his powers
—— The IndependentI can't recall a history book furnishing so many laughs en route ... The Victorians is a work of scholarship, a labour of love, a persusasive polemic
—— John Sutherland , Mail on Sunday