With a detective’s forensic patience and the narrative ear of a novelist, Tindall unpicks the histories of these houses

Gillian Tindall is a tapestry maker. She finds patterns in history – woven from close research into people and places – that no one else would have the persistence and insight to pursue. In this unique and often joyful chronicle, she interweaves the stories of three houses which marked crucial stages in her own life

A gentle, yet rigorous examination of the story of three historic buildings...each chapter is an engaging meditation on English history. Thanks to Ms Tindall the stories of all three are better understood than at any point in their history, and all have their place in a perfectly crafted book

Tindall is a forensic researcher [and] has an imaginative historical sensibility and her way of revisiting the past – as if approaching it through the back door – has both subtlety and poignancy. The names of Tindall’s inhabitants may sometimes pass in a blur but together they form a roll-call of the predecessors of modern Britain. There are of course thousands of other houses like the three in this touching book...whose stories will never be told

Gillian Tindall is gifted with an archeological imagination. [She] circles around these houses, bringing out their light, colour and preciousness by employing a method that crosses genres. This book is an education in many things

A triumph over time and death, proof that the past is all around us

Her excavation of the histories of the ordinary people who lived in each place is fascinating and she vividly brings the past to life via domestic minutiae

Subtle, delicate and slightly dotty. Tindall is attracted to the idea of lives overlooked and deeds mislaid…this intriguing, imaginative book is very much my cup of tea

Three houses - a Cotswold vicarage, a one-time girls' boarding school and a Jacobean house. Gillian Tindall explores the lives of those who once lived there, and through her research she is able to reveal four centuries of English history. Tindall has sensitivity to the past like few others; her approach to history is delicate, detailed and revealing. For my money, this is one of the history leads of the year

The big surprise of this book is the fascinating thread of memories which holds the narrative together

She is a writer with a quiet genius for local history and empathetic understanding of ordinary people

A deeply rewarding read

Both warm and poignant and a joy to read

It’s a worthy project, but in the most fascinating way

Tindall transforms bricks and mortar into fascinating social history

Wonderful, passionate, dangerous, fascinating stuff. I couldn't put it down

Leanda de Lisle has the gift of reminding us that history is the story of real people; real men, real women, full of rage and ambitionand lust and hope and love. The Tudors are already our most vivid dynasty, by quite a long chalk, but these pages render them more vivid still. This was an age when the game was worth the candle, when a chance remark could result in a crown or the axe. Wonderful, passionate, dangerous, fascinating stuff. I couldn't put it down

This fresh take on the Tudor dynasty is history at its best... an engaging and well-sourced account, sprinkled with provocative anecdotes that will appeal to both scholars and general readers... This compelling tale is driven by three-dimensional people and relationships, and de Lisle does a fantastic job of making them feel lived and dramatic

Reveals an entirely new perspective on one of England's most fascinating dynasties

A very lucid, entertaining and excellent read

A thrilling, intelligent and fresh royal history that sweeps from the family’s unlikely beginnings in the 1420s to their apotheosis under Elizabeth

The compelling story of the Tudors is vividly brought to life in de Lisle's narrative

This should now be the go-to book for those looking for a broad understanding of the Tudors

De Lisle's energy and stamina in this vast operation are truly impressive. What is more, she tells an often thrilling story with great dexterity... Altogether, this remarkable achievement puts de Lisle firmly in the front rank of popular historians of the period

Unlike many books that claim to tell the story of the Tudors, but focus mainly on four characters (namely Henry VIII and his three children who all ruled England after him), this excellent book includes so many members of the Tudor family who may not always be forgotten, but are often sidelined