This brilliant book by the leading historian of our times about a subject of great significance will delight professional historians and entrance the reading public. Rough Crossings succeeds in all respects. It is a 'tour de force' and a landmark in historical scholarship

Schama's gift for plunging us into the very centre of the action, whether in Charleston, London or on the African coast, makes reading an exhilarating experience

Brilliant and deeply moving

Schama has a remarkable ability to stare into the anonymous faces in the crowd and to pluck them from historical obscurity. Rough Crossings gives voice to people who have, until now, remained mere names on duty lists

One only has to dip into Rough Crossings to appreciate the command of detail that lies behind his apparently effortless ability to come up with the right quotation or description

Nigel Townson has produced a superb synthesis of the new Spanish history, while offering an original and arresting narrative of his own.

Nigel Townson's compelling analysis of twentieth-century Spain combines a deep knowledge of European history with the novelist's eye for the telling detail.

Townson provides an engaging and accessible account of Spain's tumultuous twentieth century. Convincingly dismantling the myth of Spanish exceptionalism, he shows that the lights and shadows of modern Spanish history can only be properly understood in the broader European context. This is a compelling and even-handed book

A veritable tour de force, this account of Spain's long twentieth century is a model of clarity, organization and economy alike, whilst at the same time offering interpretations that are as bold as they are original

Nigel Townson's book provides a marvellous overview of more than one hundred years of Spanish history. It is based on wide-ranging research, original in approach and accessible in style

A splendid study, a true magnum opus. This is absolutely the best history of twentieth-century Spain in either language

Impressive

Compelling ... Impressively for a book that covers a long and tumultuous era, Townson makes space for recent research, much of which will be new to the general reader ... An up-to-date history of modern Spain is a mammoth task, but one which Townson is well placed to attempt

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.