In my opinion this is the best single volume history of the period between the Normans and the Wars of the Roses. Very interesting period of English history. ( )

Interesting to read, wasn't as dry as other history books. ( )

"The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England" by Dan Jones is thorough. A prior knowledge of geography and European history is helpful because this book has a narrow beam focused on the monarchy. The epilogue was superb and will help me keep the era of the Plantagenets in my memory. ( )

A thick book with short, easy-to-read chapters, covering 245 years of Plantagenet history as kings of England and some chapters setting the scene before that. Even in this thickness, there was a sense there was a lot more to cover, but as a brief introduction from the start to the end this worked very well. ( )

This is a sweeping history of the kings who ruled England and initially Normandy, but also varying other areas of what is now France from about 1120 to 1400. It is easily readable narrative written about the kings personally and to a lesser extent the development of state power.
I have read a number of books covering various aspects of this period over the years, including the even more sweeping Foundation by Peter Ackroyd (English history through to Henry VII) and the excellent, but detailed, Thomas Becket: murder and the making of a saint.
This book is a very readable history, but because of the long time period covered, it is necessarily brief at times, leaving me wanting to read more details about various periods (and the book does provide a bibliography to direct reading). However, some periods (Henry III’s 56 year reign) did feel as if they were rushed, and the turn of the wheel of fortune was sometimes stated, but not fully explained. ( )