A riveting, pacy and vivid chronicle of the Tower's turbulent past
Alison Weir In the hands of Nigel Jones we have an excellent contemporary guide, providing the right mix of scholarship and storytelling, insight and narrative pace, to offer a cracking history of the Tower.
Sunday Express
A breezy account of the Tower's past is full of surprises . . . Nigel Jones knows how to tell a tale with just enough detail to make the story work in any period since the 11th century . . . thrilling history.
Sunday Telegraph
In writing about the Tower's glory days, Nigel Jones has produced a wonderfully rollicking history of England itself. Told with relish, it should be a godsend to any history teacher who needs to hold the attention of his pupils.
Daily Mail
Much as I love books on Britain's past, it is a long time since I found one which enthralled me as much as the 400 pages of this volume. Jones tells the colourful story in an equally lively fashion, and the two sections of black and white plates, from the Bayeux Tapestry to the Krays, are well chosen. An epic history - and an epic read indeed.
Bookbag
In this jaunty history Nigel Jones seeks to conjure the many characters that have lived, been imprisoned and perished within its walls ... Jones weaves yarns from the Tower's past into the familiar tapestry of English history. His prose is dashing.
Times Literary Supplement