Frankopan has written a remarkable book that makes as strong case as the incomplete and episodic evidence permits

Scholarly and yet accessible, and unashamedly partisan, The First Crusade, as any vibrant history should, is bound to set a lot of feathers flying

A dazzling book, perfectly combining deep scholarship and easy readability. The most important addition to Crusading literature since Runciman

A nuanced and often counterintuitive story of power politics, international diplomacy and war and, ultimately that very rare thing - a truly fresh interpretation of an old story

Frankopan's qualities as a historian and writer are of a high order

Convincing and accessible

A scholarly but readable account of the first crusade, refreshingly repositioning it as a successful attempt by the Byzantine Emperor to save Constantinople

The best book on the First Crusade ever written

Peter Frankopan's re-assessment of the Byzantine contribution to the origins and course of the First Crusade offers a compelling and challenging balance to traditional accounts. Based on fresh interpretations of primary sources, lucidly written and forcefully argued, The First Crusade: The Call from the East will demand attention from scholars while providing an enjoyable and accessible narrative for the general reader.

In this fluent and dramatic account, Frankopan - quite rightly - places the Emperor Alexios at the heart of the First Crusade and in doing so he skilfully provides a texture/dimension so often missing from our understanding of this seminal event in world history. Frankopan illuminates the complex challenges that faced Alexios and deftly depicts the boldness and finesse needed to survive in the dangerous world of medieval Byzantium

It is not possible to do justice to a long and complex argument in a short review, and the author clearly shows that Byzantine politics played a significant part in the formulation of Western attitudes

Frankopan's creative revisionism pierces the armour of medieval history with a new weapon: the call of the East

Superb…brilliantly described…I am proceeding to tell everyone I know that they have to buy the book, read it, and change the way they teach the First Crusade

A great manifesto for all those women who have never been very good at being well-behaved.

Difficult Women has real bite and is brimming with the kind of sharp wit that renders it unsuitable reading on public transport lest you start cackling.

Through her telling of the fascinating histories of Difficult Women, Lewis gifts us with a fresh, whip-smart and compassionate perspective on contemporary feminism. A brilliant and inspiring book.

Well-behaved women may not make history but brilliant women certainly write it. Helen Lewis’s glorious history of feminists, feminism, and female causes is a rallying cry for women to take up intelligent action and fight – fight for those rights!

Helen Lewis is one of the very few journalists whose every word I will read. Her debut book…makes the very solid point that the acquisition of rights for women has not always come from those who one would necessarily like.

Some names you will recognise, others will be new. All deserve your respect. In a world where equality still feels like an uphill struggle, it is wonderful to celebrate eleven epic and ultimately victorious battles.

A witty and wise corrective to the whitewashed heroines of the “rebel girls” and “awesome women” industry.

I loved Difficult Women. Helen Lewis writes with a devilish wit and a clear eye about the harder edges of meaningful progress. Engaging, moving, witty and sobering - Difficult Women is a book for all humans who value all humans, as difficult as they may be.

An extremely important and timely book that shows why sometimes it pays to be a "difficult woman".

[Difficult Women is] written in a feistily accessible style…so it’s easy to engage with the actual substance.

Intellectually rigorous, satisfying, eloquent and witty with it. What more could you want?

Ultimately it chimes with a resounding clarion call: we are difficult women. Don’t sand our edges away. Celebrate us in all our uneven glory. After all, well-behaved women don’t make history.

Blending rigorous research with passages that make you bark with laughter, this is an effortlessly smart study of feminism’s power to make society better for everyone.

Helen Lewis has produced a real gem in Difficult Women... With wit and understanding...it is effective and often very moving.

A collection of fascinating, well-researched and vividly told biographies of women who made tangible contributions to the lives we live now… Lewis’ book is challenging, punchily written and refreshing in equal measure, and a joy to read.

A lesson modern progressives would be remiss to ignore.

Any one of these women could fill a book on her own, but Lewis deftly threads their lives together into an irresistibly rumbustious account of this movement; sometimes affecting, sometimes very funny (the footnotes are a sass-filled joy) and sometimes shocking.

[Difficult Women] is meticulously researched and intelligently argued whilst also being extremely readable. Unusually for a non-fiction book, it is a page-turner. Lewis' style is playful and engaging, and after each chapter you find yourself turning the page asking eagerly "but what happened next?”… Interspersed with personal anecdotes and often funny footnote asides, she deals with the serious alongside the light-hearted in a way which demonstrates her talent as a writer, researcher and journalist

This history of feminism eschews feelgood, empowering clichés and goes in search of the 'difficult women' who shaped the fight for gender equality.

Engaging and witty, this history of feminist fights will keep you gripped to the last page.

This often hilariously funny book taught me about the women who fought for my freedoms. Unlike in so many accounts, these women are not canonised but written as they are, imperfect.

Helen Lewis is one of the very few journalists whose every word I will read.