Morris tells Edward's story fluently and conveys a compelling sense of the reality, and the contingency, of personal rule... It is on the subject of "the forging of Britain" that Morris is most consistently thought-provoking

Marc Morris's new account of the life of Edward I is a splendid example of the genre. Edward's life is in many ways an ideal subject for such an approach, full of incident and action... An excellent, readable account of his reign

This is a direct, forthright and welcoming book... Edward I was called a "great and terrible king" and he has been well served by Marc Morris. He leads us confidently through the litany of battles and conflicts

A highly readable account of an important reign

Marc Morris has written the first full biography of Edward I for around 100 years, and uncommonly good it is too ... He was a remarkable man, and a great king. Marc Morris does him justice, brings him clearly before our eyes, and, like a true historian, judges him by the standards of his age, not ours. It's compelling stuff

The title of Marc Morris' book is apt. No king of England had a greater impact on the peoples of Britain than Edward I. By telling his story in the context of the thirteenth-century English views of the Scots and the Welsh, and seeing Scottish and Welsh developments as interlocking with, but being more than simply responses to English invasion, he has succeeded in writing a book for today

An insightful, compelling and highly readable account of one of Britain's most influential kings

Edward I's reign during the Middle Ages was one of the most dramatic in history: a time of adventure and political advances, including Holy Land crusades and battles with Scotland. A brilliant biography

Historical biography's newest star

His conclusions neatly balance the equally pertinent questions of why Communist systems collapse, and why they lasted so long

One of Britain's leading experts on communism provides a grimly humorous and richly anecdotal study

Scholarly, well-paced and critical...few can match him for insider knowledge

Balanced, insightful, illuminated by intriguing detail and flashes of humour, this worldwide panorama is a miracle of compression

This superb book gives the history of the ideology and the reasons for its decline

It reads like Sovietology rendered by John le Carré

The book is well written with flashes of mordant humour and sufficient records of personal foibles and institutional stupidity to keep the reader going through some dreadful moments of human history