RaveThe Times (UK)A book that moves and informs ... These shades of light and dark are part of Anne’s enduring fascination: despite Henry’s efforts she seems so alive. In Hunting the Falcon we see her quick, bright in flight, her eyes still keen and her talons sharp.
Thomas Penn
RaveThe Times (UK)... this vast, sprawling book offers an epic orgy of colour and character: there are soldiers and townsmen, poets and pirates, battlefield massacres and hidden murders. But the figure of Edward IV stands out ... One of the great strengths of Brothers York is the attention paid to the European stage, and Penn is good at bringing its protagonists to life.
Gareth Russell
PositiveThe Times (UK)Gareth Russell tells us the popular appeal of the Titanic outstrips that of every ship since Noah’s ark. In his hands you can understand why ... like spending time with an amusing conversationalist aboard what the Edwardians called \'a ship of dreams\' ... Russell shows us around and, like one of the more awkward guests, I have questions. Some beds have \'rose pink duvets\'. Surely Russell means eiderdowns? The Titanic’s Turkish baths contain a swimming pool and electric baths, an early form of the tanning bed. Intriguing. In what way were they like a tanning bed? ... Happily, the six first-class passengers and their families on whom Russell focuses prove to be a colourful selection of companions ... [Russell] is good at bringing his favoured passengers to life ... Russell’s social observations are sharp and witty...the wider history he presents is packed with interesting details.
Chris Skidmore
RaveThe Sunday TimesChris Skidmore wants us to judge Richard as the man of the time, rather than merely of the crime. Yet the result is a narrative that is all the more terrifying, and a portrait that chills you to the bone ... Skidmore describes Richard’s death in horrifying detail ... It marks a bloody climax to a biography in which the unfolding horror comes from the slow burn of detail drawn from manuscript sources and recent scholarship judiciously presented, and in a story well told. Skidmore’s scholarly understanding of the period ensures he succeeds in his objective to depict Richard as a man whose actions reflect the nature of power during this period—and its nature was often pitiless.
