Quotes
“Here, the three York brothers spring to ferocious life, and you need strong nerves to meet them. With insight and skill, Penn cuts through the thickets of history to find the heart of these heartless decades.” Hilary Mantel, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“An epic orgy of color and character.” The Times (London)
“Pacy, engrossing, and evocative in its details (of feasts and jousts as well as battles and diplomatic skulduggery)." Times Literary Supplement
“An exceptionally detailed and absorbing narrative history with a gallantly sustained human touch.” The Telegraph (London)
“Meticulously researched…A vital corrective to the ongoing, polarising battle over Richard III’s legacy.” The Spectator (London)
“Thrilling…[Penn] brings a novelist’s verve to his telling of events…Penn’s history of betrayal, backstabbing, and paranoia strikes notes that still resonate today.” The Guardian (London)
“Penn’s weighty new volume takes as its titular subject the lives of these three brothers. But The Brothers York is primarily a biography of the charismatic Edward—and a superb biography at that.” Financial Times (London)
“Penn’s latest is a treat for dedicated readers of English history who know the outlines of the story covered but wish to learn more.” Library Journal (starred review)
“This rigorous and richly detailed account breathes new life into the Wars of the Roses.” Publishers Weekly
“Besides chronicling intrigues, conspiracies, and shifting alliances among a large cast of characters, Penn details the ‘messy reality of life’ among the nobles and their subjects: births and deaths, festivals and weddings, feasts and tournaments, famines and illness, and, not least, the unstoppable gossip that circulated constantly. Rebellious decades come to life vividly in a taut, spirited history.” Kirkus Reviews