Rarely have I felt so utterly captivated by a history book. It is stunning! Jessie Childs is a major new talent. She brings her characters to life so vividly, and the narrative just flows, packed with amazing detail. This, for me, is a surprisingly fresh view on a period with which I am very familiar.

A truly superb biography.

Clatters along like an epic gangster movie... gripping.

Jessie Childs is a rising star among historians. Just when we thought everything had been said about Henry VIII she makes us see him from a completely new angle - through the eyes of a poet aristocrat.

Childs's description of these complex manoeuvrings [at Henry's court], as of the French wars, is excellent...this book opens a fascinating window on the mid-Tudor world.

A fascinating story ...a very readable, and diligently researched book.

A detailed and vivid picture of the daily and seasonal life of the landed aristocracy of the time, as well as of the political scheming and backbiting which in Henry's last years were all too often fatal.

This is a rumbustious tale and well worth the retelling but what makes this biography special is the quality of the writing. It is as fluid and engaging as the research is careful and penetrating.

Splendid and original

Immensely readable ... Merridale recounts [the Kremlin's] eventful history with great skill and tremendous narrative verve

Merridale is a historian by training, but she has a detective's nose and a novelist's way with words

As with many important books, the reader will wonder why nothing like Catherine Merridale's work ... has been written before ... Merridale has succeeded in stripping off the veneer... She has the skills to get guardians of secret places talking and to negotiate access with Russian archivists, and thus penetrate the inner workings of the Kremlin. At the same time, she has a feeling for the site that brings dry archaeological and architectural facts to life: few writers can write the biography of a city or a citadel ... The Kremlin's history is likely to be frozen for decades to come. This unique and stunningly well-illustrated book is going to be a definitive study for just as long

Catherine Merridale's sparkling new book shows that it is people who dominate architecture

As usual, [Merridale's] engaging writing style combines a keen eye for detail with a human touch

[A] superb history of the Kremlin ... pages of lucid prose

A thoughtful critique of privacy . . . blows apart our patronising attitude towards the Victorian family

Rigorous and relevant

Pries open the most astounding archives to uncover what our recent ancestors tried to hide

Remarkable, moving and surprising . . . drawing on divorce courts, hospital records and adoption agencies, Cohen debunks many myths

Groundbreaking reporting and character-rich storytelling... Passionately written...almost makes one nostalgic for a time when novels were so important that even the CIA cared about them

A sparkling and fascinating account

Well-paced narrative...of great relevance today, when such conflicts seem (but only seem) to have disappeared.

Immensely compelling

Meticulously researched

The true strength of this meticulously researched book is the placing of the revelations into the context of a compelling human drama

Engrossing

[An] outstanding treasure of literature

Impeccably researched, and moving, this book breaks new ground