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Books

Britain’s own game of thrones

A review of The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses and the Rise of the Tudors, by Dan Jones, who says it's all Henry VI's fault

13 September 2014

9:00 AM

13 September 2014

9:00 AM

The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses and the Rise of the Tudors Dan Jones

Faber, pp.435, £20, ISBN: 9780571288076

Thank goodness for Game of Thrones. I think. Apparently it is inspired by the Wars of the Roses, drawing inspiration from the bloody, ruthless machinations of England’s power-brokers at the waning of the Middle Ages. Anyway, plenty of readers and watchers of George R.R. Martin’s work think that it is; what with that and BBC television’s recent The White Queen and She-Wolves series and (spot the marketing opportunity) the Shakespearean trilogy of, ahem, The Hollow Crown, undergraduates are queuing up for courses on this period of history.

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Available from the Spectator Bookshop, £17. Tel: 08430 600033. Sean McGlynn’s books include Blood Cries Afar and By Fire and Sword.

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