Kaye Jones

An interesting idea to provide a brief history such as this one. Unfortunately, without much knowledge about the period in question to orient myself, I sometimes found it confusing: the number of Henrys and Matildas roaming medieval England seems to be overwhelming. Only towards the end, with the ascension of Henry II to the throne and the introduction of Eleanor of Aquitaine did I start to get my historical bearings. The book is well-written and concise, and provides appendices with short biographies and a timeline that I found helpful. I also might have liked a map included, since my familiarity with geography seems to be as wanting as my familiarity with Medieval history. With a more recent topic that I have more casual knowledge of, the "History in an Hour" format might have been quite good, but in this case it just made me want to have more information.… (mehr)