Wonderful... what sets it apart is the way the tale is told. Quirky digressions and fascinating anecdotes pepper a narrative of wonderful dramatic energy.

Excellent and profoundly committed ... Man provides a vivid, lucid and economical picture. A worthy addition to the burgeoning popular literature on the centaurs of the steppes.

[Man] does a splendid job of conveying the sheer opulence and grandeur... [and tells] a rollicking good story, his historical narrative interspersed with high-spirited travel-writerly digressions. Lively and engaging.

A very lively and enjoyable book.

One could not wish for a better storyteller or analyst than John Man.

His ability to put us in the picture, to feel, smell and almost touch the surroundings he describes, is matched by his ability to tell a good story.

Man, who has travelled widely in the region, focuses on the distinctive features of the empire which these unscrupulous conquerors founded, and the legacy that they left behind.

John Man’s history shows that, while the Mongol hordes were bloodthirsty, Genghis also instituted an enlightened form of government based on religious toleration. He also shows how Genghis’s grandson, Kublai, succeeded in unifying China, laying the groundwork for the modern superpower. Man’s account is fast paced.

Weaving his story skilfully around the narratives of three main characters - a priest, a mother, a husband - David Belton tells the intimate story of the Rwandan genocide. The human experience that lies behind the statistics is both searing and heart-lifting, Belton draws it out with both empathy and grace.

Searing, compelling and refreshingly devoid of the hyperbole of war-reporting . . . This is an important reminder of the culpability of so many – including the West for averting its gaze. It also serves as a potent warning of the fragility of humanity.

Lucid, passionate, urgent

This is first class history and in a year swamped with First World War centenary books, it’s the one you should read first

A compelling and fascinating read...a shadowy assassin brought to life by an writer who gets to grips with a century of Balkan intrigue

A marvellously absorbing book... A triumph of research, it will appeal to the layman and historian alike

Extremely well written, taut and evocative... Despite its complex subject, Butcher makes this an easy and engaging read with his breezy style and fascinating encounters

Illuminating... Butcher achieves something remarkable with Princip. He promotes him quite plausibly from mad man to everyman; a warning to the future whom the future foolishly forgot

Arguably the most important story of the war

As a travel writer, Butcher takes some beating. He packs balls as well as ballpoints

A triumph of storytelling... [A] highly original gem of a book

Informative and powerful

A page-turning exploration of how the forgotten past continues to inform the present... Important, and relevant

[Princip’s] story as Butcher now tells it has a resonance far beyond the Balkans

Elegant, horrifying and enlightening… A book which is not only a good piece of detective work, it is the finest contribution so far this year to the rapidly expanding literature on the Great War

Tim Butcher has produced the most imaginative and singular book on the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War to date. It is a lot more than a study of Princip… It is a piece of expeditionary journalism, an investigation in time, place and spirit, of the highest order

A revealing insight into the mind and journey of the boy who escaped the narrow confines of his village, and whose political aspirations for his native country had such far-reaching effects on the world

Utterly absorbing… If journalism is the first draft of history, Butcher marries both disciplines with boldness and originality – as well as sympathy for his shadowy subject

Insightful and entertaining, this blows the cobwebs off the history of that day

Positive proof that fact can be as gripping as fiction…rich and timely… Amongst so many books published around the anniversary of the First World War, this one stands out

A fascinating investigation… An absorbing read

Despite its serious subject matter, the book is a rollicking read, full of amusing details and sarcastic humour

A brilliant and haunting journey through the Balkans

In the centenary year of the death of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, what better read than Tim Butcher’s The Trigger

[A] fascinating and lively history

Very complex – but you will grasp it

A fascination exploration

Highly readable but profoundly researched, The Trigger represents a bold exception to the deluge of First World War books devoted to mud, blood and poetry

a fascinating original portrait of a man and his country