Here are a couple of interviews I’ve done recently about my new book, The Plantagenets: The Kings Who Made England.
With medievalists.net - discussing the reasons for writing the new book, and the changing nature of kingship in the high middle ages.
With Varsity - the Cambridge student newspaper, on everything from medieval rule and Horrible Histories to a simple approach to student debt.
My new book, The Plantagenets: The Kings Who Made England, has been reviewed in a number of publications during the last fortnight. Here are some of the highlights:
“Jones has written a magnificently rich and glittering medieval pageant, guiding us into the distant world of the Plantagenets with familiar confidence. This riveting history of an all-too-human ruling House amply confirms the arrival of a formidably gifted historian.”
Sunday Telegraph, Book of the Week, 20 May
“Dan Jones’… action-packed narrative covers an enormous amount of historical ground… [It] is, above all, a great story, filled with fighting, personality clashes, betrayal and bouts of the famous Plantagenet rage… Jones is an impressive guide to this tumultuous scene… The Plantagenets succeeds in bringing an extraordinary family arrestingly to life.”
Daily Telegraph, five stars, 19 May
“Dan Jones’s big book on a big subject… [is] traditional narrative history at its best, supported by some telling anecdotes and written with style and flow.”
The Spectator, 18 May
“The Plantagenets is a wonderful gallop through English history in the traditional way. Powerful personalities, vivid descriptions of battles and tournaments, ladies in fine velvet and knights in shining armour crowd the pages of this highly engaging narrative.”
The Evening Standard, 10 May
“This is an exciting period and Jones describes it with verve. He has a keen appreciation of how power was seized and wielded by medieval monarchs, and the way they manipulated history, religion and symbolism in the service of kingship. It makes for a long book, but I zipped through it. Medieval history is enjoying its time in the sun again thanks to some excellent writers. Heaven be praised for that.”
The New Statesman, 9 May
The first review of my new book, The Plantagenets, appeared this week in the Literary Review.
Edited highlights:
Jones covers an enormous amount of ground: eight generations of kings and queens from 1120 to 1399. The risk with a long dynastic history is that it becomes just one damn thing after another, and the reader gets lost in a snowstorm of names and events. Jones avoids this with a combination of gripping storytelling and pin-sharp clarity… I was grateful to be kept on track by a text that is simple and direct without leaving me feeling patronised…
Yet The Plantagenets is not just a collection of great stories. Woven into the drama of the narrative we see the transformation of the office of kingship, the growth of a refined political philosophy that defined the king’s duties to the realm and vice versa, and the development of a body of common and statute law that underpinned how England was governed. The evolving symbolism of kingship, the changing architectural landscape, and the emerging use of the English language in government and poetry are also addressed. This ensures that The Plantagenets is a satisfying as well as an enjoyable read. There is no need for added goblins in this real life game of thrones.
You can buy The Plantagenets here.
You can now book tickets for a talk I’m giving at this year’s Telegraph Hay Festival. I’ll be discussing the characters and great stories from my new book, The Plantagenets: The Kings Who Made England. It’s at 9am on Tuesday 5 June, for the frankly knockdown price of £5.25. Come!
Dan Jones is an historian and an award-winning journalist. His new book, 'The Plantagenets' is released on 17 May 2012.
This is his website and blog.
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Recent work
I’ve been busy - albeit not busy updating this blog. Here, at a glance, is some of my recent writing for the newspapers. (Click the links to read.) Otherwise, I have been hard at work on my new book, a history of the Wars of the Roses, due for publication by Faber & Faber in 2014. And I have made a film for BBC4, which will appear later this year. For more regular updates, you can find me on Twitter, username @dgjones
Pull-out guide Two million years of British history in 15 minutes, from The Times (£)
Feature How to have a medieval Christmas, from The Telegraph
Reporting on the ‘Richard III’ skeleton beneath the Leicester car park, from The Sunday Times (£)
Book review Blood Sisters by Sarah Gristwood, from The Sunday Times (£)
Podcast What the Plantagenets Did For Us, hosted by BBC History Magazine. (Scroll down to 1 November)
Review The best History Books of 2012, from The Telegraph
Interview with Mark Gatiss, from The Sunday Times
Archive of my Evening Standard column is here