Captivating, scholarly and addictively readable… Rebecca Fraser has the rare gift of being able to marshal and communicate a mountainous quantity of often original research in such a deft and elegant manner that it never becomes indigestible or irrelevant. [...] When a sidestep outside her rigorous chronological account is required, she executes it nimbly, without breaking her stride. If she reaches a period of scanty evidence, she admits it, and her suggestions carry the conviction of expertise. Everything is rooted in provable fact, much of it new

Rebecca Fraser tells this familiar story with wonderful immediacy; the Winslows come across not as strange characters from the distant past, but as real people with passions and anxieties familiar to us all

It is engagingly written and often compelling. There is an eye for memorable detail… The later account of “King Philip’s war” is both graphic and gripping… The author is a careful researcher, fair and level-headed. She is also an excellent painter of characters; in judging them, she looks as their deeds with contemporary mores in mind… Even if the Mayflower shelf is a crowded one, this is a book that deserves its place on it

[Fraser] has threaded the important historiographical innovations seamlessly into her text, paying more attention than hitherto to the experiences of early colonial women, and drawing on the lessons of ethno-history in her portrayal of Indian tribes... A brilliant combination of synthesis and original research arriving in good time for the celebration of the quincentenary of the Mayflower

Fascinating… Rebecca Fraser commands a sprawling canvas, beginning in 1595 with the birth of Edward Winslow and ending in 1704 with the death of Peregrine White… Edward Winslow’s excitement at arriving in Leiden, with its free-thinking university, is vividly captured. So, too, are the perils of the Mayflower’s voyage… There is also a rich sense of the enormous possibilities offered by the New World… This is a thrilling story, admirably told

Fraser is an experienced, sensitive biographer... [She] has clearly set her sights on addressing an audience of intelligent, curious, lay people. She has written with an awareness of the powerful cultural heritage the colonial Puritans created in New England and occasionally alludes to nineteenth-century commentators on them. It is a measure of her success that, after a lifetime of teaching and writing about American history, I found her story illuminating points I had never before fully appreciated.

An intimate view of colonial life, an approachable companion to more forbidding scholarly studies

The Mayflower Generation makes a convincing case that the Winslows, father and son, played as important a role in New England’s development as the better-known William Bradford and John Winthrop

Fraser’s smooth storytelling provides a revealing look into the development of the [Plymouth] colony, the rise of the Massachusetts Bay Company, and the different outlooks on the community and the lure of land. The story of the Winslows is an effective way to experience the emotions and fears of the small band who dauntlessly sailed off to the New World

Epic in scope and pacing, this account of survival feels intimate... The author's inclusion of indigenous history along with the struggles of women pilgrims and their importance to the community's success is both appreciated and necessary

Renowned historian Fraser brings us yet another superbly written and enthralling read... she excels at showing howlandscape, religion, and politics can irreversibly transform a family and a community. Highly recommended

Rebecca Fraser has written a superb account of the first two generations of the Winslow family of the Mayflower. Fraser’s extensive research has shed new light on this interesting family and allied families. This book stands as a significant contribution to the already well documented field of Pilgrim history ... a must read for those interested in the unique beginnings of America

Rebecca Fraser’s exquisitely researched book seems to offer something new to learn – and wonder over – on every page, from the warm, mutually admiring friendships between some Puritans and Native Americans to the near-apocalyptic brutality of King Philip’s War, and other campaigns. The Pilgrims believed that ‘the world could begin afresh in America,’ this gifted historian writes. As, eventually, it did. Deftly, indelibly, Fraser shows us the human cost

The author puts the reader into the period with a front-row seat as the story unfolds and captures the reader. It’s a must-read for anyone interested in the Edward Winslow family and many of his contemporaries that surrounded Winslow in England, the Netherlands and came with him to New England. Fraser’s attention to historical detail is excellent and enhances this riveting book!

A well written and far ranging perspective on the Pilgrims and seventeenth century New England by a noted student of English history

A vital look into the early years of the GAA and a perfect gift for both sport and history lovers

Marvellous ... the definitive account of this remarkable period when hurling came to life

Flows along far more merrily and lightly than any history book has a right to and is especially enlightening when it comes to drawing the founding fathers Michael Cusack and Maurice Davin

Dreamy, poetic, meditative, wildly discursive and intensely personal… [Blackburn] has a witchy way of ascribing human personality to other species, and even inanimate objects… Provocative and poetic.

Fitzharris slices into medical history with this excellent biography of Joseph Lister, the 19th-century "hero of surgery." ... She infuses her thoughtful and finely crafted examination of this revolution with the same sense of wonder and compassion Lister himself brought to his patients, colleagues, and students

The Butchering Art is medical history at its most visceral and vivid. It will make you forever grateful to Joseph Lister, the man who saved us from the horror of pre-antiseptic surgery, and to Lindsey Fitzharris, who brings to life the harrowing and deadly sights, smells, and sounds of a nineteenth-century hospital

Fascinating and shocking ... [Fitzharris] offers an important reminder that, while many regard science as the key to progress, it can only help in so far as people are willing to open their minds to embrace change

The Butchering Art, with its attention to detail, its admiration for its subject and its unflinching sympathy for the suffering, proposes a causal chain - running through the history of human sickness and not yet at its end - in which Lister forms a strong and vital link

An energetic, fascinating and deeply researched book… Miller’s skill is to address and capture the transient nature of Landon’s fame… to retrieve [Landon] from history’s doldrums, and demolish the mocking which continued for decades.

A compelling book.

Terrific… Miller expertly decodes the story of her life and loves from poems, and the book reads like a novel.

Sensational material brought expertly to life; but Miller’s real gift to the reader is her patient reconstruction of the “lost literary generation” 1820s and 1830s.

A riveting, tantalisingly ambiguous portrait of a poet whose confessional voice makes her only more intriguing to modern readers.

A fascinating...deeply intelligent, witty and often moving exploration of race in modern Britain

Afua Hirsch's first book, Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging, was published to wide acclaim at the start of 2018. She looks at the many, multi-faceted questions that surround identity - both on a personal and societal scale - to pen a thought-provoking read.

It is a life-shaping read.

Brit(ish) stands out from a crop of books on growing up mixed race in 70s Britain.

Brit(ish) is an essential read for all. Hirsch's exploration of her identity brings to light the difficulties of growing up as mixed-race and black in Britain. She also challenges the British perception of race, and how our inability to confront our past has profoundly affected our ability to coherently understand and discuss race in our present. Brit(ish) is a call to action, if we genuinely want to progress as a society, we must change our discussions and understanding of race.

A personal, political and challenging account of what it means to be British when you are racialised as Black. Hirsch is a brilliant and fearless intellect who deftly handles the complexity of the issues

A beautifully written, poignantly honest memoir while also scrutinising modern history and popular culture. The breadth of Hirsch's focus is impressive... Her insights are numerous and profound, big and small, woven into the details of a personal life we can all learn from.

A haunting investigation into family trauma and secrets from a forgotten England that turns out to lie closer to the surface than anyone suspected. Turning detective, she [Laura Cumming] interrogates old snapshots with the forensic skill of a professional art critic

On Chapel Sands starts by seeming to be about one kind of mystery but soon starts being about another, much more profound one… the subtlety and suspense of the narrative lies in the way Cumming allows details about their relationship to emerge slowly, like a photograph socking in developing fluid

With her critic’s eye, Cumming turns detective to investigate who took her mother and tell a pacy story about relationships, pride and the ramifications of what goes unsaid

In a year strong in ingenious memoir, Laura Cumming’s On Chapel Sands…stood out, not just for its great storytelling but for Cumming’s wonderful ability to bring to life a Lincolnshire coastal community…its moods, characters and toxic secret-harbouring machinery

This beautifully written memoir of family mystery proved one of the surprise hits of 2019

[A] twisting literary mystery that also serves as a deeply moving love letter

A complex story of family secrets, beautifully written, and illustrated

A beautiful, multi-layered story full of lost love, human motivation and tender secrets

[A] bewitching blend of history and mystery

A scrupulous work of storytelling, radiant with empathy and filial affection