Helen Carr

I didn't want to do anything but read this book for a fortnight. Helen Carr is one of the most talented and compelling historians of her generation

Helen Carr is one of our foremost historians and we are so lucky to have her explaining how we got here

Superb, gripping and fascinating, here is John of Gaunt and a cast of kings, killers and queens brought blazingly, sensitively and swashbucklingly to life. An outstanding debut

This vivid history brings to life his princely ambitions and passion

One of the most exciting new voices in narrative history

Helen Carr has captured the drama of [Gaunt’s] life and the tensions inherent in it in a compelling portrait. In so doing, she reminds us of the contradictions of a period remote from our own, not just in time but in values and beliefs too…

Linda Porter, Literary Review on The Red Prince

A new history of the fourteenth century

'Helen Carr is one of the most talented and compelling historians of her generation' 
Sathnam Sanghera 
 
THE TIMES BOOKS TO LOOK OUT FOR IN 2025Beginning with the death of Edward I in 1307 and ending with the deposition of Richard II in 1399, Sceptred Isle is the story of a century told through the lives of the last Plantagenets, uncovering lesser-known voices and untold stories along the way. 
 
Through the epic drama of regicide, war, the prolonged spectre of the Black Death, religious antagonism, revolt and the end of a royal dynasty, we encounter the human stories behind a fractured monarchy, the birth of the struggle between Europeanism and nationalism, social rebellion and a global pandemic. 
 
Sceptred Isle is a thrilling narrative account of a century of revolution, shifting power and great change – social, political and cultural – shedding new light on a pivotal period of English history and the people who lived it.

Helen Carr

Praise for Sceptred Isle

I didn't want to do anything but read this book for a fortnight. Helen Carr is one of the most talented and compelling historians of her generation

Helen Carr is one of our foremost historians and we are so lucky to have her explaining how we got here

Superb, gripping and fascinating, here is John of Gaunt and a cast of kings, killers and queens brought blazingly, sensitively and swashbucklingly to life. An outstanding ...

I didn't want to do anything but read this book for a fortnight. Helen Carr is one of the most talented and compelling historians of her generation

Helen Carr is one of our foremost historians and we are so lucky to have her explaining how we got here

Superb, gripping and fascinating, here is John of Gaunt and a cast of kings, killers and queens brought blazingly, sensitively and swashbucklingly to life. An outstanding ...

I didn't want to do anything but read this book for a fortnight. Helen Carr is one of the most talented and compelling historians of her generation

Helen Carr is one of our foremost historians and we are so lucky to have her explaining how we got here

Superb, gripping and fascinating, here is John of Gaunt and a cast of kings, killers and queens brought blazingly, sensitively and swashbucklingly to life. An outstanding ...

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