Dan Jones is the author of The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queen Who Made England, a #1 international bestseller and New York Times bestseller, and Wars of the Roses, which charts the story of the fall of the Plantagenet dynasty and the improbable rise of the Tudors. He writes and presents the popular Netflix series Secrets of Great British Castles. He is also the author of Magna Carta: The Birth of Liberty and Summer of Blood: England's First Revolution and is working on a history of the Knights Templar due out in 2017.
Praise for The Plantagenets
"Like the medieval chroniclers he quarries for juicy
anecdotes, Jones has opted for a bold narrative approach anchored
firmly upon the personalities of the monarchs themselves yet deftly
marshaling a vast supporting cast of counts, dukes, and bishops. .
. . Fast-paced and accessible, The Plantagenets is old-fashioned
storytelling and will be particularly appreciated by those who like
their history red in tooth and claw. Mr. Jones tackles his subject
with obvious relish."
--The Wall Street Journal "Delicious . . . Jones has produced a
rollicking, compelling book produced a rollicking, compelling book
about a rollicking, compelling dynasty, one that makes the Tudors
who followed them a century later look like ginger pussycats. . . .
The Plantagenets is told with the latest historical evidence and
rich in detail and scene-setting. You can almost smell the sea salt
as the White Ship sinks, and hear the screams of the tortured at
the execution grounds at Tyburn."
--USA Today "Jones has brought the Plantagenets out of the shadows,
revealing them in all their epic heroism and depravity. His is an
engaging and readable account--itself an accomplishment given the
gaps in medieval sources and a 300-year tableau--and yet researched
with the exacting standards of an academician. The result is an
enjoyable, often harrowing journey through a bloody, insecure era
in which many of the underpinnings of English kingship and
Anglo-American constitutional thinking were formed."
--The Washington Post "Brilliant and entertaining . . . a set of
fine vignettes relating dynastic life, death, war, peace,
governance, and palace intrigues. The result is a history book that
frequently reads like a novel and can be opened to any
chapter."
--Tampa Bay Times "Blood-soaked medieval England springs to vivid
life in Jones's highly readable, authoritative, and assertive
history."
--Publishers Weekly "They may lack the glamour of the Tudors or the
majesty of the Victorians, but the Plantagenets are just as
essential to the foundation of modern Britain. . . . The great
battles against the Scots and French and the subjugation of the
Welsh make for thrilling reading but so do the equally enthralling
struggles over succession, the Magna Carta, and the Provisions of
Oxford. . . . Written with prose that keeps the reader captivated
throughout accounts of the span of centuries and the
not-always-glorious trials of kingship, this book is at all times
approachable, academic, and entertaining."
--Booklist "A novelistic historical account of the bloodline that
'stamped their mark forever on the English imagination' . . .
Perhaps Jones' regular column in the London Standard has given him
a different slant on history; however he manages, it's certainly to
our benefit. . . . For enjoyable historical narratives, this book
is a real winner."
--Kirkus Reviews "A riveting portrait of the royal lineage from
Henry II through Richard II . . . Despite the density caused by any
attempt to cram centuries of English history into one volume, Jones
manages to create a work that is highly accessible to readers with
only a basic knowledge of this era. . . . This is an excellent
study of the period, both an overview and a series of character
studies. It will be thoroughly enjoyed by Anglophile history buffs
and others who love popular history or even historical
fiction."
--Library Journal "Outstanding . . . Majestic in its sweep,
compelling in its storytelling, this is narrative history at its
best. A thrilling dynastic history of royal intrigues, violent
skullduggery, and brutal warfare across two centuries of British
history."
--Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Jerusalem: The Biography
"The Plantagenets played a defining part in shaping the nation of
England, and Dan Jones tells their fascinating story with wit,
verve, and vivid insight. This is exhilarating history--a fresh and
gloriously compelling portrait of a brilliant, brutal, and
bloody-minded dynasty."
--Helen Castor, author of She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled
England before Elizabeth "This is history at its most epic and
thrilling. I would defy anyone not to be right royally entertained
by it."
--Tom Holland, author of Rubicon: The Triumph and Tragedy of
the Roman Republic "Jones has written a magnificently rich and
glittering medieval pageant, guiding us into the distant world of
the Plantagenets with confidence. This riveting history of an
all-too-human ruling House amply confirms the arrival of a
formidably gifted historian."
--Sunday Telegraph "Entertaining and informative . . . Jones has
produced an absorbing narrative that will help ensure that the
Plantagenet story remains 'stamped on the English imagination' for
another generation."
--Sunday Times (London) "Traditional narrative history at
its best."
--The Spectator "Jones, a protege of David Starkey, writes with his
mentor's erudition but also exhibits novelistic verve and sympathy.
. . . This is a great popular history, whether you are au fait with
the machinations of medievalism or whether Magna Carta mystifies
you. . . . The Plantagenets is proof that contemporary history can
engage with the medieval world with style, wit and chutzpah."
--The Observer (London) "This action-packed narrative is, above
all, a great story, filled with fighting, personality clashes,
betrayal and bouts of the famous Plantagenet rage. . . . Jones is
an impressive guide to this tumultuous scene. . . . The
Plantagenets succeeds in bringing an extraordinary family
arrestingly to life."
--Daily Telegraph "An excellent book . . . The Plantagenets is a
wonderful gallop through English history. Powerful personalities,
vivid descriptions of battles and tournaments, ladies in fine
velvet and knights in shining armour crowd the pages of this highly
engaging narrative."
--The Evening Standard
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