Dan Jones' "The Hollow Crown" is a terrifically written narrative of the Wars Of The Roses, starting with a brief accounting of Henry V and quickly jumping in to the bumbling years under Henry VI, setting the stage for the Yorkist revolt and usurpation of the throne by Edward IV. This began generations of battles features warring cousins, ultimately culminating in Henry VII and the rise of the Tudors, who managed to bring together the quarrelsome Yorks and Lancastrians under one banner. Lovingly written with a keen attention to detail and a thankfully limited amount of conjecture. This is the second of Dan Jones' books I've read (the first being The Plantagenets, which is a sort of prelude to this book), and I'll admit I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did. ( )

Review can be found here:

https://nordie.wordpress.com/2020/05/06/book-review-the-hollow-crown-by-dan-jone...

Well-researched and well-written narrative non-fiction about the period of time in English history covering the various Wars of the Roses (1455-1487). It is an account of the infighting between the branches of the Plantagenets (Lancaster and York), leading to the rise of the Tudors, replete with many battles, treachery, greed, births, and untimely deaths. It documents these tumultuous years in which the crown repeatedly changed hands. Told mostly in chronological order, it documents the various allegiances, betrayals, and general chaos of the times. The author has a knack for providing vivid descriptions and tells these stories in an engaging way such that the reader can easily follow, though there are so many people with the same names that it is occasionally hard to keep them all straight. This book is covers a higher level picture of events with enough background information that it feels like just the right level of detail. I certainly learned a lot! ( )

To start off: I was going through a bit of a reading funk (one where I was having trouble finding the motivation to read) while reading this book, so it took me longer than it probably should have.
— start of review —
So this was an amazingly well written book. There is so much detail and information in it, but Dan Jones deftly categorizes and explains every fact, from intrigue to marriage, coronations to executions.
I personally feel like if someone other than Jones had written this book, I wouldn’t have understood it as well as I did.
I feel like we hear a basic outline of this war in school, which is understandable: the Wars of the Roses - the actual wars - include so much detail and one would have to review so much - which would take up time - for a complete understanding of these wars in a school setting.
I personally really enjoyed reading this book. It kept my interest throughout the story (despite my reading funk), and Jones deftly wove together the history of the Wars of the Roses. ( )

I'd always understood that the Wars of the Roses ended when everyone died... but I never knew just how literally true that was. Jones does a masterful job of balancing a story that could easily have been made too complex or too simple. ( )