Richard II is a short but solid biography of a monarch made famous mostly by [[Shakespeare]]. Richard II became King of England at age ten upon the death of his grandfather Edward III, and in many ways like Peter Pan, he never grew up. A believer in the power of the monarchy, he was constantly picking favorites and isolating everyone else, never caring that his image of the monarchy was becoming increasingly detached from reality. Preferring peace to war, his reign was nevertheless buffeted by rebellions, until he lost all support and was forced to give up his crown to the man who became Henry IV. This lead directly to his death in captivity less than a year later.

Like all the books in the Penguin Monarchs series, this one is just around 100 pages, but the author's unique organizational method, in which each chapter describes Richard's actions in a different sphere: parliament, battlefield, city, and shrine, allows her to use the page count to her advantage and build a comprehensive portrait of a man most know only as the tragic protagonist in a Shakespearean play. ( )