HENRY V reigned over England for only nine years and four months, and died at the age of just thirty-five, but he looms over the landscape of the late Middle Ages and beyond.

The victor of Agincourt was remembered as the acme of kingship, a model to be closely imitated by his successors. William Shakespeare deployed Henry V as a study in youthful folly redirected to sober statesmanship. In the dark days of World War II, Henry's victories in France were presented by British filmmakers as exemplars for a people existentially threatened by Nazism. Churchill called Henry 'a gleam of splendour in the dark, troubled story of medieval England', while for one modern medievalist, Henry was, quite simply, 'the greatest man who ever ruled England'.

For Dan Jones, Henry is one of the most intriguing characters in all medieval history, but one of the hardest to pin down: a hardened warrior, yet also bookish and artistic; a leader who made many mistakes, yet always triumphed when it mattered. As king, he saved a shattered country from economic ruin, and in foreign diplomacy made England a serious player once more. Yet through his conquests in northern France, he sowed the seeds for calamity at home, in the form of the Wars of the Roses.

Dan Jones's life of Henry V stands out for the generous amount of space it allots to his long royal apprenticeship - the critical first twenty-six years of his life before he became king. It is an enthralling portrait of a man with a rare ability to force his will on the world. But, above all, it is an unmissable account of England's greatest king from our bestselling medieval historian.

The UK's bestselling medieval historian brings unforgettably to life the astonishing rise of Henry V, who survived rebellion, a near-fatal arrow wound and a lengthy and precarious princely apprenticeship to become England's greatest warrior king.

Henry V reigned over England for only nine years and four months, and died at the age of just 35, but he looms over the landscape of the late Middle Ages and beyond.

The victor of Agincourt was a model king for his successors. Shakespeare's version of Henry V saw his youthful folly redirected to sober statesmanship, and in the dark days of World War II, Henry's victories in France were recounted in British propaganda. Churchill called Henry 'a gleam of splendour in the dark, troubled story of medieval England', while for one modern medievalist, Henry was, quite simply, 'the greatest man who ever ruled England'.

For Dan Jones, Henry is one of the most intriguing characters in all medieval history, but one of the hardest to pin down. He was a hardened, sometimes brutal, warrior, yet he was also creative and artistic, with a bookish temperament. He was a leader who made many mistakes, who misjudged his friends and family members, yet always seemed to triumph when it mattered.

As king, he saved a shattered country from economic ruin, put down rebellions and secured England's borders; in foreign diplomacy, he made England a serious player once more. Yet through his conquests in northern France, he sowed the seeds for three generations of calamity at home, in the form of the Wars of the Roses.

Dan Jones's life of Henry V provides unprecedented insight into the critical first 26 years of his life before he became king. Both a standalone biography and a completion of Dan's sequence of English medieval histories that began with The Plantagenets and The Hollow Crown, Henry V is a thrilling and unmissable life of England's greatest king from our best-selling medieval historian.

Christian Dior's era-defining designs and enduring legacy are captured here in more than 50 of the fashion house's most iconic pieces.

Dior redefined what fashion looked like in the post-war age and demanded glamour, femininity and excess to be the order of the day. His vision for seriously structured corsets tapering to dramatically full skirts with pleats for days earned the title 'The New Look', and it really was. His garments spoke of hope and beauty and were crafted with the utmost attention to detail. This beautifully illustrated book charts not only the work of the great man himself, but also those who stood at the helm after him, including the inimitable Yves Saint Laurent and John Galliano.

The House of Dior has dressed everyone from Old Hollywood icons like Grace Kelly and Marlene Dietrich through to fictional fashion icon Carrie Bradshaw and music royalty Rihanna. Style Icon: Dior is a wonderful tribute to the romantic, lavish and elaborate designs of a beloved brand.

The sensational historical fiction debut from Sunday Times bestseller Dan Jones. A BBC History 2022 Book of the Year! July 1346. The Hundred Years' War has begun, and King Edward and his lords are on the march through France. But this war belongs to the men on the ground. Swept up in the bloody chaos, a tight-knit company from Essex must stay alive long enough to see their home again. With sword, axe and longbow, the Essex Dogs will fight, from the landing beaches of Normandy to the bloodsoaked field of Crécy. There's Pismire, small enough to infiltrate enemy camps. Scotsman, strong enough to tear down a wall. Millstone, a stonemason who'll do anything to protect his men. Father, a priest turned devilish by the horrors of war. Romford, a talented young archer on the run from his past. And Loveday FitzTalbot, their battle-scarred captain, who just wants to get his boys home safe. Some men fight for glory. Others fight for coin. The Essex Dogs? They fight for each other. Praise for Essex Dogs: 'Oddly joyous – rolling action, fast-paced, a book that draws you in page by page. The way Dan Jones writes enemies reminds me of Cornwell at his best, turning up tension click by click.' Conn Iggulden 'A new champion has entered the front line of historical fiction to stand shoulder to shoulder with Bernard Cornwell.' Jane Johnson 'Battle-bloody, brutal and perfectly pitched.' Daily Mail 'Vital, earthy, and heart-stopping... So deft and funny that you'd never guess this is Dan Jones' debut work of fiction.' Suzannah Lipscomb '[Dan Jones'] mastery of his subject matter is obvious. The soldiers' lives are rather brilliantly recreated – the kit, the fighting, the boredom and discomfort.' The Times 'Few books manage to be as compelling on every level as Essex Dogs: it's adventure, history, and heart.' Dana Schwartz 'A busy, urgent little masterpiece.' Graham Hurley 'Fascinating. Brutal. Real... Impossible to put down.' Simon Turney 'Horribly compelling... Only Dan Jones can carry you through blood, piss and vomit and leave you wanting more.' Daisy Dunn 'With a cast of unforgettable characters, written with irrepressible verve and historical accuracy, Dan Jones delivers a compelling novel that thrums with swordswinging energy.' Simon Sebag Montefiore 'The battles that shaped Europe from the point of view of the soldiers... Searing.' Kate Williams 'War. Looting. Junkies. Pintle-tugging. The English abroad. Dan Jones takes you to the year of Our Lord 1346.' Tibor Fischer

This brilliant new book explores the lives of eight generations of the greatest kings and queens that this country has ever seen, and the worst. The Plantagenets - their story is the story of Britain. England's greatest royal dynasty, the Plantagenets, ruled over England through eight generations of kings. Their remarkable reign saw England emerge from the Dark Ages to become a highly organised kingdom that spanned a vast expanse of Europe. Plantagenet rule saw the establishment of laws and creation of artworks, monuments and tombs which survive to this day, and continue to speak of their sophistication, brutality and secrets. Dan Jones brings you a new vision of this battle-scarred history. From the Crusades, to King John's humbling over Magna Carta and the tragic reign of the last Plantagenet, Richard II - this is a blow-by-blow account of England's most thrilling age.

The fifteenth century experienced the longest and bloodiest series of civil wars in British history. The crown of England changed hands violently five times as the great families of England fought to the death for the right to rule. Some of the greatest heroes and villains in history were thrown together in these chaotic years. Yet efforts were made to maintain some semblance of peace and order, as chivalry was reborn, the printing press arrived, and the Renaissance began to flourish. Following on from Dan Jones's bestselling The Plantagenets, The Hollow Crown is a vivid and engrossing history of these turbulent times.

The instant Sunday Times bestseller A Times, New Statesman and Spectator Book of the Year 'Simply the best popular history of the Middle Ages there is' Sunday Times 'A great achievement, pulling together many strands with aplomb' Peter Frankopan, Spectator, Books of the Year 'It's so delightful to encounter a skilled historian of such enormous energy who's never afraid of being entertaining' The Times, Books of the Year 'An amazing masterly gripping panorama' Simon Sebag Montefiore 'A badass history writer... to put it mildly' Duff McKagan 'A triumph' Charles Spencer Dan Jones's epic new history tells nothing less than the story of how the world we know today came to be built. It is a thousand-year adventure that moves from the ruins of the once-mighty city of Rome, sacked by barbarians in AD 410, to the first contacts between the old and new worlds in the sixteenth century. It shows how, from a state of crisis and collapse, the West was rebuilt and came to dominate the entire globe. The book identifies three key themes that underpinned the success of the West: commerce, conquest and Christianity. Across 16 chapters, blending Dan Jones's trademark gripping narrative style with authoritative analysis, Powers and Thrones shows how, at each stage in this story, successive western powers thrived by attracting - or stealing - the most valuable resources, ideas and people from the rest of the world. It casts new light on iconic locations - Rome, Paris, Venice, Constantinople - and it features some of history's most famous and notorious men and women. This is a book written about - and for - an age of profound change, and it asks the biggest questions about the West both then and now. Where did we come from? What made us? Where do we go from here? Also available in audio, read by the author.

THE SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

The Knights Templar were the wealthiest, most powerful - and most secretive - of the military orders that flourished in the crusading era. Their story - encompassing as it does the greatest international conflict of the Middle Ages, a network of international finance, a swift rise in wealth and influence followed by a bloody and humiliating fall - has left a comet's tail of mystery that continues to fascinate and inspire historians, novelists and conspiracy theorists.

Whisky: Shake, Muddle, Stir is a beginner’s guide to whisky and bourbon. Dan Jones teaches you how to stock your home bar, pick some of the world’s best whiskies and pull together your own infusions and syrups. Try your hand at classics like an Old Fashioned or The Sazerac, or modern hits like Bourbon Smash or The Rattlesnake. With over 40 whisky recipes, Whisky: Shake, Muddle, Stir shows you just how versatile whisky is.

A major new history of the Crusades with an unprecedented wide scope, told in a tableau of portraits of people on all sides of the wars, from the author of Powers and Thrones. For more than one thousand years, Christians and Muslims lived side by side, sometimes at peace and sometimes at war. When Christian armies seized Jerusalem in 1099, they began the most notorious period of conflict between the two religions. Depending on who you ask, the fall of the holy city was either an inspiring legend or the greatest of horrors. In Crusaders, Dan Jones interrogates the many sides of the larger story, charting a deeply human and avowedly pluralist path through the crusading era. Expanding the usual timeframe, Jones looks to the roots of Christian-Muslim relations in the eighth century and tracks the influence of crusading to present day. He widens the geographical focus to far-flung regions home to so-called enemies of the Church, including Spain, North Africa, southern France, and the Baltic states. By telling intimate stories of individual journeys, Jones illuminates these centuries of war not only from the perspective of popes and kings, but from Arab-Sicilian poets, Byzantine princesses, Sunni scholars, Shi'ite viziers, Mamluk slave soldiers, Mongol chieftains, and barefoot friars. Crusading remains a rallying call to this day, but its role in the popular imagination ignores the cooperation and complicated coexistence that were just as much a feature of the period as warfare. The age-old relationships between faith, conquest, wealth, power, and trade meant that crusading was not only about fighting for the glory of God, but also, among other earthly reasons, about gold. In this richly dramatic narrative that gives voice to sources usually pushed to the margins, Dan Jones has written an authoritative survey of the holy wars with global scope and human focus.

Dogs Who Changed the World is a beautifully illustrated, heart-warming book that celebrates all dogs and proves that every single one of them is absolute magic. Dogs have trotted at our collective side for tens of thousands of years, bound up in the story of humanity. They have inspired great works of art, caught spies, reconnected lost lovers, dragged the drowning to safety... or have just haplessly and happily ruined everything. These 50 tales acknowledge our unbreakable relationship with the dog, the first-ever domesticated animal, and their dedication, heroism and unending sense of fun. Along the way we'll meet big-boned Barry, the hefty St Bernard credited with saving the lives of more than 40 lost souls in the Swiss Alps in the 1800s. We'll discover Sigmund Freud's calm-inducing chow chow, Jofi, who would sit in on his psychotherapy sessions (and never spilled a secret), and feel the frustration of Sir Isaac Newton, whose little terror Diamond apparently knocked over a candle and destroyed the physicist's most important manuscripts.

The third volume in Marina Amaral and Dan Jones's bestselling Histories in Colour series.

A Woman's World explores the many roles – domestic, social, cultural and professional – played by women across the world from 1850–1960, before second-wave feminism took hold. Using Marina's colorized images and Dan Jones's words, this survey shines a light on the varied pursuits of women both celebrated and ordinary, whether in the home or the science lab, protesting on the streets or performing on stage, fighting in the trenches or exploring the wild.

Each chapter is introduced by a woman who works in that field, offering insights into their job and experiences. The book includes photographs of Queen Victoria, Edith Cavell, Josephine Baker, Mildred Burke, Eva Peron, Eleanor Roosevelt, Virginia Woolf, Clara Schumann, Martha Gellhorn, Simone de Beauvoir, Agatha Christie, Frida Kahlo, Emmeline Pankhurst, Harriet Tubman, Florence Nightingale, Hattie McDaniel and Gertrude Bell; as well as revolutionaries from China to Cuba, Geishas in Japan, protestors on the Salt March, teachers and pilots, nurses and soldiers.

This vivid and unique history brings to life and full color the female experience in a century of extraordinary change.

From the bestselling author of The Templars. 'Voyages, battles, sieges and slaughter: Dan Jones's tumultuous and thrilling history of the crusades is one of the best' SUNDAY TIMES. 'A powerful story brilliantly told. Dan Jones writes with pace, wit and insight' HELEN CASTOR. 'A fresh and vibrant account of a conflict that raged across medieval centuries' JONATHAN PHILLIPS. Dan Jones, best-selling chronicler of the Middle Ages, turns his attention to the history of the Crusades - the sequence of religious wars fought between the late eleventh century and late medieval periods, in which armies from European Christian states attempted to wrest the Holy Land from Islamic rule, and which have left an enduring imprint on relations between the Muslim world and the West. From the preaching of the First Crusade by Pope Urban II in 1095 to the loss of the last crusader outpost in the Levant in 1302-03, and from the taking of Jerusalem from the Fatimids in 1099 to the fall of Acre to the Mamluks in 1291, Crusaders tells a tale soaked in Islamic, Christian and Jewish blood, peopled by extraordinary characters, and characterised by both low ambition and high principle. Dan Jones is a master of popular narrative history, with the priceless ability to write page-turning narrative history underpinned by authoritative scholarship. Never before has the era of the Crusades been depicted in such bright and striking colours, or their story told with such gusto. PRAISE FOR THE TEMPLARS: 'A fresh, muscular and compelling history of the ultimate military-religious crusading order, combining sensible scholarship with narrative swagger' SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE. 'Dan Jones has created a gripping page-turner out of the dramatic history of the Templars' PHILIPPA GREGORY. 'The story of the Templars, the ultimate holy warriors, is an extraordinary saga of fanaticism, bravery, treachery and betrayal, and in Dan Jones they have a worthy chronicler. The Templars is a wonderful book!' BERNARD CORNWELL. 'Told with all Jones's usual verve and panache, this is a dramatic and gripping tale of courage and stupidity, faith and betrayal' MAIL ON SUNDAY. 'This is another triumphant tale from a historian who writes as addictively as any page-turning novelist' OBSERVER. 'The Templars is exhilarating, epic, sword-swinging history' TLS. 'Jones carries the Templars through the crusades with clarity and verve. This is unabashed narrative history, fast-paced and full of incident ... Jones tells their story extremely well' SUNDAY TIMES.

'Purists argue that colourising black and white photographs is sacrilege, but the world has always been in colour. Truth be told, monochrome is a contrivance. Human experience is always colourful' The Times. The epic, harrowing and world-changing story - in words and colourized images - of global conflict from the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand to the obliteration of Hiroshima by the dropping of the first atom bomb. The World Aflame will embrace not only the total conflagrations of 1914-18 and 1939-45 and the international tensions, conflicting ideologies and malign economic forces that set them in train, but also the civil wars of the interwar period in Ireland and Spain, wars in Latin America, Britain's imperial travails in such places as Ireland, Somalia and Palestine, and events on the domestic 'fronts' of the belligerent nations. Like The Colour of Time, The World Aflame is a collaboration between the gifted Brazilian artist Marina Amaral, and the leading British historian Dan Jones. Marina has created 200 stunning images, using contemporary photographs as the basis for her full-colour digital renditions. The accompanying narrative anchors each image in its context, weaving them into a vivid account of four decades of conflict that shaped the world we live in today. A fusion of amazing pictures and well-chosen and informative words, The World Aflame offers a moving - and often terrifying - perspective on the bloodiest century in human history. ************************************************************** Reviews for THE COLOUR OF TIME: 'The most breathtakingly colourised black-and-white pictures ever' Daily Mail. 'I have long considered colourisation sacrilege ... after reading this book, I've changed my mind' The Times. '[The Colour of Time] does something simple yet extraordinary. It takes black-and-white photos of historic events and colours them in. The effect is transformative' Daily Telegraph. 'A stunning book ... Quite extraordinary' The Bookseller. 'There is something of The Wizard of Oz about Marina Amaral's photographs. She whisks us from black-and-white Kansas to shimmering Technicolor Oz ... When you see Amaral's coloured portraits, you think: phwoar! ... She changes the way we see a period or a person' Spectator. 'The effect of colour is far more transformative than you might imagine ... [Amaral's] touched-up photographs look even more realistic, and closer to life, than a photograph taken yesterday ... Extraordinary' Mail on Sunday. 'Pictures brought to life as you've never seen them before' Sunday Post. '[Amaral] breathes new life, immediacy and human connection into black-and-white pictures. Even familiar shots are transformed in a breathtaking way ... Even the casual reader leafing through these pages will be stopped in their tracks, connected to people from the past like never before - at last, in living colour' Irish News. 'Jones sketches with wry economy not only the historical context but the purpose of the photograph, from documented reality to shameless propaganda, from official portrait to candid snap ... There is much to enjoy here. As a history book, it acts as a fleeting guide to a tumultuous century. But as an aesthetic experiment it is remarkably successful' Daily Express. 'What also elevates The Colour of Time above regular coffee table fare is the startling vivacity and impact of the photographs chosen, and the concise but focused and gripping texts by Jones, making the book a worthwhile cover-to-cover read as much as it serves as a showcase book to dip into at will' All About History.

In his new cocktail collection, expert mixer Dan Jones proves that rough-around-the-edges dive bars provide the perfect inspiration for your homemade drinks. After all, if the bartender in a low-lit, sticky-carpeted, no-frills establishment can churn out a faultless Manhattan or the Dirty Martini of your dreams, that means you can do it too! Dan starts by detailing the basic cocktail kit, but never fear: an empty pickle jar for shaking and a spoon for swizzling will do the trick. With over 50 recipes, featuring chic classics and modern concoctions, single serves and jugs of joy, you won't know where to begin. To set the mood, Dan explores the greatest dive bars across the globe and offers up the best karaoke song or dirty snack to accompany your tipple. So whether it's a cocktail party or an unplanned drinkathon, let Dive Bar inject some magic into your next soiree.

Hidden in the margins of history books, classical literature, and thousands of years of stories, myths and legends, through to contemporary literature, TV and film, there is a diverse and other-worldly super community of queer heroes to discover, learn from, and celebrate. Be captivated by stories of forbidden love like Patroclus & Achilles (explored in Madeleine Miller's bestseller Song of Achilles), join the cult of Antinous (inspiration for Oscar Wilde), get down with pansexual god Set in Egyptian myth, and fall for Zimbabwe's trans God Mawi. And from modern pop-culture, through Dan Jones's witty, upbeat style, learn more about 90s fan obsessions Xena: Warrior Princess and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Neil Gaiman's American Gods and the BBC's Doctor Who. Queer Heroes of Myth & Legend brings to life characters who are romantic, brave, mysterious, and always fantastical. It is a magnificent celebration of queerness through the ages in all its legendary glory.

An instant New York Times bestseller, from the author of Crusaders, that finally tells the real story of the Knights Templar-"Seldom does one find serious scholarship so easy to read." (The Times, Book of the Year) A faltering war in the middle east. A band of elite warriors determined to fight to the death to protect Christianity's holiest sites. A global financial network unaccountable to any government. A sinister plot founded on a web of lies... In 1119, a small band of knights seeking a purpose in the violent aftermath of the First Crusade set up a new religious order in Jerusalem, which was now in Christian hands. These were the first Knights Templar, elite warriors who swore vows of poverty and chastity and promised to protect Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land. Over the next 200 years, the Templars would become the most powerful network of the medieval world, speerheading the crusades, pionerring new forms of finance and warfare and deciding the fate of kings. Then, on October 13, 1307, hundreds of brothers were arrested, imprisoned and tortured and the order was disbanded among lurid accusations of sexual misconduct and heresy. But were they heretics or victims of a ruthlessly repressive state? Dan Jones goes back to the sources to bring their dramatic tale, so relevant to our own times, to life in a book that is at once authoritative and compulsively readable.

"Not only an engrossing read about the distant past, both informative and entertaining, but also a profoundly thought-provoking view of our not-really-so-'new' present . . . All medieval history is here, beautifully narrated . . . The vision takes in whole imperial landscapes but also makes room for intimate portraits of key individuals, and even some poems."-Wall Street Journal "A lively history . . . [Jones] has managed to touch every major topic. As each piece of the puzzle is placed into position, the modern world gradually comes into view . . . Powers and Thrones provides the reader with a framework for understanding a complicated subject, and it tells the story of an essential era of world history with skill and style."-The New York Times The New York Times bestselling author returns with an epic history of the medieval world-a rich and complicated reappraisal of an era whose legacy and lessons we are still living with today. When the once-mighty city of Rome was sacked by barbarians in 410 and lay in ruins, it signaled the end of an era--and the beginning of a thousand years of profound transformation. In a gripping narrative bursting with big names-from St Augustine and Attila the Hun to the Prophet Muhammad and Eleanor of Aquitaine-Dan Jones charges through the history of the Middle Ages. Powers and Thrones takes readers on a journey through an emerging Europe, the great capitals of late Antiquity, as well as the influential cities of the Islamic West, and culminates in the first European voyages to the Americas. The medieval world was forged by the big forces that still occupy us today: climate change, pandemic disease, mass migration, and technological revolutions. This was the time when the great European nationalities were formed; when the basic Western systems of law and governance were codified; when the Christian Churches matured as both powerful institutions and the regulators of Western public morality; and when art, architecture, philosophical inquiry and scientific invention went through periods of massive, revolutionary change. The West was rebuilt on the ruins of an empire and emerged from a state of crisis and collapse to dominate the world. Every sphere of human life and activity was transformed in the thousand years covered by Powers and Thrones. As we face a critical turning point in our own millennium, Dan Jones shows that how we got here matters more than ever.

A vivid and richly illustrated portrait of English society in the penultimate year of the reign of a king with the worst reputation of any in our history. 1215 is chiefly remembered for King John attaching his seal to Magna Carta in a quiet Thames-side water-meadow - a milestone in the history of liberty. But it was also a year of crusading and church reform, of foreign wars and dramatic sieges - a year in which London was stormed by angry barons and England invaded by a French army. As well as describing these upheavals, Dan Jones introduces us to the ordinary people of thirteenth-century England - how and where they worked, what they wore, what they ate, and what role the church played in their lives - to create a vivid gripping portrait of an extraordinary year in English history.

The Colour of Time spans more than a hundred years of world history from the reign of Queen Victoria and the US Civil War to the Cuban Missile Crisis and beginning of the Space Age. It charts the rise and fall of empires, the achievements of science, industry and the arts, the tragedies of war and the politics of peace, and the lives of men and women who made history. The book is a collaboration between a gifted Brazilian artist and a leading British historian. Marina Amaral has created 200 stunning images, using contemporary photographs as the basis for her full-colour digital renditions. Dan Jones has written a narrative that anchors each image in its context, and weaves them into a vivid account of the world that we live in today. A fusion of amazing pictures and well-chosen words, The Colour of Time offers a unique - and often beautiful - perspective on the past. This compact edition of The Colour of Time makes the perfect gift for anyone (and not just anyone interested in history).

The New York Times bestseller, from the author of Powers and Thrones, that tells the story of Britain's greatest and worst dynasty-"a real-life Game of Thrones" (The Wall Street Journal) The first Plantagenet kings inherited a blood-soaked realm from the Normans and transformed it into an empire that stretched at its peak from Scotland to Jerusalem. In this epic narrative history of courage, treachery, ambition, and deception, Dan Jones resurrects the unruly royal dynasty that preceded the Tudors. They produced England's best and worst kings: Henry II and his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, twice a queen and the most famous woman in Christendom; their son Richard the Lionheart, who fought Saladin in the Third Crusade; and his conniving brother King John, who was forced to grant his people new rights under the Magna Carta, the basis for our own bill of rights. Combining the latest academic research with a gift for storytelling, Jones vividly recreates the great battles of Bannockburn, Crecy, and Sluys and reveals how the maligned kings Edward II and Richard II met their downfalls. This is the era of chivalry and the Black Death, the Knights Templar, the founding of parliament, and the Hundred Years' War, when England's national identity was forged by the sword.

The author of Powers and Thrones and presenter of Netflix's Secrets of Great British Castles offers a vivid account of the events that inspired Game of Thrones and Shakespeare's Henry IV and Richard III Discover the real history behind The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses, the PBS Great Performance series of Shakespeare's plays, starring Judi Dench, Benedict Cumberbatch, Sofie Okenedo and Hugh Bonneville. The crown of England changed hands five times over the course of the fifteenth century, as two branches of the Plantagenet dynasty fought to the death for the right to rule. In this riveting follow-up to The Plantagenets, celebrated historian Dan Jones describes how the longest-reigning British royal family tore itself apart until it was finally replaced by the Tudors. Some of the greatest heroes and villains of history were thrown together in these turbulent times, from Joan of Arc and Henry V, whose victory at Agincourt marked the high point of the medieval monarchy, to Richard III, who murdered his own nephews in a desperate bid to secure his stolen crown. This was a period when headstrong queens and consorts seized power and bent men to their will. With vivid descriptions of the battles of Towton and Bosworth, where the last Plantagenet king was slain, this dramatic narrative history revels in bedlam and intrigue. It also offers a long-overdue corrective to Tudor propaganda, dismantling their self-serving account of what they called the Wars of the Roses. "If you're a fan of Game of Thrones or The Tudors then Dan Jones' swashbucklingly entertaining slice of medieval history will be right up your alley... Every bit as entertaining and readable as his previous blockbuster The Plantagenets." - Daily Express