A wonderfully fluent portrait of five generations... de Lisle brings an entirely fresh feel to the Tudor story, reminding us of the one thing the monarchs themselves wanted us to forget: the sheer improbability of their royal rule
Dan Jones, author of The Plantagenets
The Times (Saturday Review)
Violent, heady, glamorous stuff, this is popular history of a very superior sort
Lucy Worsley
Country Life
Vivid... Part of the interest of this book lies in the portraits of strong women
Charles Moore
Daily Telegraph
Tudor is a gripping account of a family riven by passionate jealousies, murderous ambitions and crippling tragedies. Leanda de Lisle is a master storyteller, and this is her greatest work yet. Immersive and exhaustively researched, Tudor is a triumph.
Amanda Foreman, author of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire
While many Tudor fans have been crying out for an accessible narrative history of the entire period, few historians have felt able to rise to the challenge... [de Lisle] manages to achieve that very feat... should now be the go-to book
Chris Skidmore
History Today (Books of the Year 2013)
In de Lisle's hands, this is a deeply human tale, a family tree come to vivid life, rather than a narrative of politics and power structures (Book of the Week)
Helen Castor
Sunday Telegraph
One of the most interesting of today’s historians, with her easy scholarship, fresh interpretation and presentation, Leanda De Lisle succeeds in casting a revealing light on what one had thought familiar. The pace never flags. Time and again she says something new in one of the most exciting and enjoyable books I have read for a long time.
Desmond Seward
History Today
For those wanting a more grown-up experience of the Tudor past, there are few better places to start the Leanda de Lisle’s new study. Many have told this story before. What makes de Lisle’s account so fresh is her decision to start her “family story” not in 1485… but three generations earlier… Rarely has [this] story been told as well as here
John Adamson
Mail on Sunday
Her compellingly written book not only illuminates obscure family members... but also provides fresh perspectives on some of the most familiar figures in our history... a work that elegantly combines wide-ranging research with fluent narrative
Nick Rennison
Sunday Times (Culture)
De Lisle’s masterful command of the facts – great and small – provides a complete and entertaining overview
Giles Tremlett
Observer