It maintains the high standard of rich detail and immersive action with a whole new level of characterisation and a depth of feeling that actually makes you feel like you've got your feet figuratively on the ground next to the character themselves rather than hovering slightly above them watching the action. Henry VI is not written about enough and is such an interesting character because of his mental instability - as is Margaret, his wife. This is not a full review - this review pertains only to the 5-chapter sample won via Goodreads First Reads. Capturing the…violence and romance of medieval life, Iggulden makes real those grand characters who live in the collective memory. That said this first book in a series ( yes I managed to start at the beginning) was extremely interesting and galloped along.

What attracted me to this book is my love for The Game of Thrones television series and having been compared to same topic and theme as Game of Thrones and The White Queen I had to find out more. His poor health and frailty of mind render him a weakling king -Henry depends on his closest men, Spymaster Derry Brewer and William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, to run his kingdom. In 1443, a righteous and honorable English nobleman, William de la Pole, meets with the English spymaster, Derihew Brewer, to arrange peace between England and France.Reading this book got me excited to read the nonfiction book about the War of the Roses and learn all I can. In September 2009, he published the children's book Tollins: Explosive Tales for Children, through HarperCollins.

So, if you do decide to pick this book up, settle in for a dramatic and thrilling ride through a complex and bloody period of English history. It's a hopeless cause, of course, and it was interesting to see that little known part of the pre-Wars of the Roses period in a novel. Also many are aware of the bloody English civil war which ripped the country apart as the red rose of Lancaster battled the white rose of York. If all the incidences of this type of story fat were removed, the novel would be about 200 pages thinner. It was released in the UK in June 2006, reprinted a month later, and was voted British Book of the Year at the Galaxy British Book Awards.Set a generation after his Athenian series, it follows Pericles' rise in Athens, the formation of the Delian League, and the Battle of the Eurymedon. His previous two series, on Julius Caesar and on the Mongol Khans of Central Asia, describe the founding of the greatest empires of their day and were number one bestsellers. The cast of players from history are expanded on, filling our idea of who they are and why, who the good guy is and who the bad guy is in the war of the roses, and then WHAM!