Eleanor Of Aquitaine

Oct 21, 2024 6:52 AM

Author:Alison Weir

Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine was one of the leading personalities of the Middle Ages and also one of the most controversial. She was beautiful, intelligent and wilful, and in her lifetime there were rumours about her that were not without substance. She had been reared in a relaxed and licentious court where the arts of the troubadours flourished, and was even said to have presided over the fabled Courts of Love. Eleanor married in turn Louis VII of France and Henry II of England, and was the mother of Richard the Lionheart and King John. She lived to be 82, but it was only in old age that she triumphed over the adversities and tragedies of her earlier years and became virtual ruler of England.

Eleanor has exerted a fascination over writers and biographers for 800 years, but the prevailing myths and legends that attach to her name still tend to obscure the truth. By careful research, Alison Weir has produced a vivid biography with a fresh and provocative perspective on this extraordinary woman.

Reviews

Her biography reads like a medieval romance, a marvellous intermingling of fact with legend...fascinating...splendid

—— Literary Review

Weir approaches Eleanor's story with an objective eye and a mass of primary and secondary source material. The result is as vivid as it is informative

—— The Times

Sensible and eminently readable

—— Times Literary Supplement

When you finish the book you feel you have been put painlessly (but not necessarily without tears) in possession of the facts of this extraordinary, indefatigable woman, her sufferings and triumphs

—— Bevis Hillier , Spectator, Books of the Year

Triumphantly done

—— Sunday Times

As rich and informative a community study as one could hope to get

—— Urban Studies

It offers the same switchback exhilaration as Morrison's comic books

—— Sunday Herald

As a writer for Batman and Superman, Grant Morrison is in the perfect place to analyse the rise and fall of the superhero

—— Sunday Times

Morrison makes a passionate and knowledgeable tour guide through comics' golden age

—— The Times

Whatever your views on Grant's own creative output which I find both dazzling and, on occasions, daunting, no one can deny the man's blistering intelligence and throughout his career he has never ceased from innovation. Each new project makes readers sit up and think and I imagine many of his peers have felt the same way. Similarly this 400-page history of and tribute to this medium's meta - humans will give you much to ponder, and I don't think any true fan of the genre, as I have been since five, can afford to be without its illuminating torch

—— Page 45

If this were just Morrison's story, the reminiscences of an original Scots thinker who works in a medium that silly people scorn, it would be worth your time. The sections detailing the writer's relationship with his father are especially touching. What makes this book exceptional is the history of comics that comes with the history of Morrison... As a superhero fan, I found this a diverting read. As a people fan, I found it unputdownable

—— Scotsman

Authoritative overview of the genre...detailed and thoughtful

—— Spectator

Morrison's analysis of how comic books have reflected and influenced mainstream culture is never less than intriguing, and his turn of phrase is often a joy

—— Robert Colville , Daily Telegraph

This is entertaining stuff

—— Sunday Times, Christmas Round Up

Butterworth's fascination with his subject drips from the page...this is entertaining stuff

—— Dominic Sandbrook , Sunday Times

An astounding story of bitter civil warfare that raged across many countries for decades. Butterworth's passionate account of the anarchist movements born in the late 19th century describes a conflict that spawned its own "war on terror"

—— Steve Burniston , Guardian

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