- Published: 29 August 2013
- ISBN: 9781448190065
- Imprint: Vintage Digital
- Format: EBook
- Pages: 560
Tudor
The Family Story
- Published: 29 August 2013
- ISBN: 9781448190065
- Imprint: Vintage Digital
- Format: EBook
- Pages: 560
Leanda de Lisle has the gift of reminding us that history is the story of real people; real men, real women, full of rage and ambitionand lust and hope and love. The Tudors are already our most vivid dynasty, by quite a long chalk, but these pages render them more vivid still. This was an age when the game was worth the candle, when a chance remark could result in a crown or the axe. Wonderful, passionate, dangerous, fascinating stuff. I couldn't put it down
Julian Fellowes
Wonderful, passionate, dangerous, fascinating stuff. I couldn't put it down
Julian Fellowes
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)
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
This fresh take on the Tudor dynasty is history at its best... an engaging and well-sourced account, sprinkled with provocative anecdotes that will appeal to both scholars and general readers... This compelling tale is driven by three-dimensional people and relationships, and de Lisle does a fantastic job of making them feel lived and dramatic
Publishers Weekly
A vibrant reappraisal of this turbulent family saga
Anne Somerset, Spectator
De Lisle’s masterful command of the facts – great and small – provides a complete and entertaining overview
Giles Tremlett, Observer
Vivid... Part of the interest of this book lies in the portraits of strong women
Charles Moore, Daily Telegraph
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
Highly readable but no less scholarly
Lesley McDowell, Independent on Sunday
Full of subtle revelations and fascinating detail... fine storytelling and thought-provoking analysis
Linda Porter, Literary Review
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
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)
[An] illuminating portrait of our most famous royal family
Sunday Times
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
It is…greatly to the credit of Leanda de Lisle that her new book on the Tudors as a family is so admirably balanced and accomplished, and full of subtle revelations and fascinating detail. The familiar faces are all here but their story is told with new insights… Fine storytelling and thought-provoking analysis
Linda Porter, Literary Review
Reveals an entirely new perspective on one of England's most fascinating dynasties
Mary Lussiana, Country & Town House
A very lucid, entertaining and excellent read
Suzannah Lipscomb, History Today
A thrilling, intelligent and fresh royal history that sweeps from the family’s unlikely beginnings in the 1420s to their apotheosis under Elizabeth
Dan Jones, Telegraph
The compelling story of the Tudors is vividly brought to life in de Lisle's narrative
Discover Britain
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)
Violent, heady, glamorous stuff, this is popular history of a very superior sort
Lucy Worsley, Country Life
This should now be the go-to book for those looking for a broad understanding of the Tudors
Chris Skidmore, BBC History Magazine
Violent, heady, glamorous stuff, this is popular history of a very superior sort
Lucy Worsley, Country Life
De Lisle's energy and stamina in this vast operation are truly impressive. What is more, she tells an often thrilling story with great dexterity... Altogether, this remarkable achievement puts de Lisle firmly in the front rank of popular historians of the period
John Jolliffe, Catholic Herald
Unlike many books that claim to tell the story of the Tudors, but focus mainly on four characters (namely Henry VIII and his three children who all ruled England after him), this excellent book includes so many members of the Tudor family who may not always be forgotten, but are often sidelined
Good Book Guide