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
“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, bestselling 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
“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 protégé 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
Ask a Question About this Product More... |