[A] preposterously entertaining history of the postwar country house... reading it is rather like leafing through an old leather-bound Smythson address book whose well-connected owner has helpfully added waspish notes, gossip and the odd family tree. In other words, it's heaven.

Adrian Tinniswood's rollicking study perfectly captures the combination of decadence, pathos and brazen cheek that kept the English country house alive when it faced disaster.

[A] brilliant new history of the country house since 1945... Tinniswood tells...[the] story superbly, his racy anecdotes mined not just from the usual memoirs, but from a studious trawl of endless local papers.

Beautifully orchestrated... a compulsive read, deliciously voyeuristic and yet a triumph of meticulous social and cultural scholarship.

A vastly entertaining account of the crisis that befell England's stately homes in the decades immediately after the war.

Tinniswood...[is] an erudite historian of country-house life in all its anecdote-worthy vagaries.

As this beautifully illustrated volume shows, the 1950s and the 1960s saw a renaissance as rock concerts replaced hunt balls and the doors of ancient family seats were thrown open to paying customers. Tinniswood chronicles it all in lively detail.

By turns warm, sympathetic, sly and analytical, Tinniswood examines the complex history of the post-war country house with skill, grace, clarity - and charity. A triumph.

Tinniswood's meticulously researched and entertaining study...provides a brilliant insight into a much overlooked period. Few authors can combine serious social history with the sometimes sad and often hilarious narratives of country-house life in the way that Tinniswood can.

[A] highly enjoyable, gossipy read with a gasp on every page; a must for the bedside tables of every guest bedroom, and every stately home gift shop.

Nobody is better qualified to tell this tale of loss and transformation, in all its human complexity, than Adrian Tinniswood. A master of the sources, he brings the past to life through his vivid writing and seemingly bottomless fund of stories.

This is a rollicking book.

Tinniswood's springy prose is clear-eyed when it comes to analysing the self-interest that lies at the heart of the country house life... [and his] eye for a juicy anecdote provides the raw material for the book's 20 chapters.

It is a joy to know that so many of these wonderful buildings have been saved, and to learn about them through this book.

From the Beatles to lions in safari parks, stately homes were saved by some unlikely samaritans, as Tinniswood charts in this brilliant social history of great houses after the Second World War

Stone's new book is as up-to-date an overview as you are likely to find ... he presents a strong argument that the Holocaust should be understood as the result of ideological beliefs [and] ... illuminates with great sympathy and insight a history of continuing suffering and prejudice ... This is an outstanding book: well written, deeply felt, always perceptive and exhibiting considerable knowledge of decades of Holocaust scholarship. It will become the standard work in English on the subject for some time to come

Stone's deeply humane account draws on an array of testimonies from some of the most observant and perceptive victims, and he uses these to devastating effect ... a well-written history of the Holocaust and its aftermath, with accomplished use of eyewitness accounts ... Dan Stone remains an important and eloquent voice in the field of Holocaust studies

A timely study of the holocaust that indicates the dangers of selectively misremembering it ... vital ... offers a detailed examination of the many roots of Nazism

Riveting... Ridley brings new insight to George's personal life... Well-researched and entertaining, this book offers a vluable reassessment of a king who shaped modern Britain

[A] graceful, funny book... Ridley offers fine-grained and astute sketches of members of the king's entourage as they came and went

Outstanding . . . richly entertaining

A gifted writer (een begenadigd schrijver)

The book which impressed me most, and which I most enjoyed, this year is Andrew Roberts's George III. It is based on such astonishingly wide-ranging and original research that I felt I was reading about the period for the first time. Unknown facts and wonderful anecdotes had me turning the pages with a curiosity I seldom feel when reading about supposedly familiar events. Andrew Roberts is remarkably even-handed, and there is no special pleading on behalf of this genuinely misunderstood and wilfully misrepresented monarch who did his best to be a good constitutional ruler during a very choppy period in British history.

meticulously researched ... an eye-opening portrait of the man and his times

A deep, expansive study not only of George III but also of the political and social complexities of England and the United States during his reign.

a deeply textured portrait of George III [and] a capacious, prodigiously researched biography from a top-shelf historian.

an outstanding and surprisingly moving portrait of a misunderstood king, distinguished by refreshing revisionism but also illuminated by deep humanity.

Roberts is in a rich vein of form at present; after bestselling books on Napoleon and Churchill, yet another masterpiece has tumbled from his pen.

Roberts has been justly acclaimed as one of his generation's leading historians ... His new biography seeks to challenge popular myths about the monarch. ... Roberts, employing the same flair for original research and ability to convey historical context and vivid prose that he used in previous books ... thoroughly debunks all the assumptions most people have about the king.

exhaustively researched and written in accessible, non-jargony prose. Meticulous and forensic, it sometimes reads like a defense counsel's case for his client ... Roberts's defense of George III, though, is the fullest, the clearest, and likely to be the most definitive.

Roberts has painted a masterful portrait of a patriotic, diligent and cultivated monarch. ... This new biography is a treasure-house of detail. ... George III is an engaging, humane and at times beautiful testament to the importance of giving our ancestors a fair hearing.