The Tudors [Kindle Edition]

This is a very accessible book for all levels of history enthusiast. There is one chapter to each of the five Tudor monarchs, with sub-chapters on specific issues of interest during their reign.

The author states that he's writing more from the basis of showing the political state of England through the Tudor dynasty rather than focusing on personal aspects. Don't let the "political" theme put you off though, it is far from boring and in many ways all the main topics that occured in the monarch's reigns do involve their thoughts and feelings and reasons for actions. I would certainly term this as the best "Overview" of the Tudors I've read.

There are black and white photos throughout the book, with a section of colour photos in the middle which mainly look at the heraldry of each monarch. There are some great photos of paintings, engravings and documents of the time, of which are clear enough to read and one of particular interest is a letter by Lady Jane Grey, signed "Jane the Quene"(her spelling not mine!).

This is not a dull trawl through the usual known facts of the Tudor period; there are often new bits and pieces of information that I hadn't read before and other things written from a different perspective. An excellent book to own for all those with a passion for the Tudors!

You may ask how can the Tudors be covered in just over 200 pages? Richard Rex has written what should be the definitive introduction to England's best known dynasty. Rex is lively, opinionated yet scholarly in a very fresh and light way, dedicating a chapter to each monarch and sub-dividing each chapter into the reign's key events and themes.

I have read many books on Tudor history so was a little wary to read a book covering the whole period in just a small number of pages. Despite it offering little new information Rex's flowery opinions of each monarch leap out while at the same time encapsulating the reign.

"The first dozen years of his (Henry VII) reign were spent scheming and fighting against pretenders whose claims were only slightly more ridiculous than his own."
"Henry (VIII) may have been at times obnoxiously self-righteous, spotting splinters in other people's eyes despite the heaps of timber blocking his own lights, but nobody could say he was not sincere."
"All the notes (of Edward VI's journals regarding Mary Tudor's Catholicism) smack of that combination of dogmatic self-righteousness with ignorance of human values... which is the particular prerogative of the adolescent"
"In the end, Mary failed. She did not save England for Roman Catholicism. But she did not fail completely. She did save Roman Catholicism in England."

If you haven't read a book on Tudor history, read this first. If you have already, I'll wager you'll thoroughly enjoy it as a quick yet entertaining read.

The book was amazing so full of information this will really help me with school. Thank you Richard I give this book 5/5