A Brief History of British Kings and Queens

Brief Histories

By: Mike Ashley

Narrated by: Roger Davis

Here is the whole of recorded British royal history, from the legendary King Alfred the Great onwards, including the monarchies of England, Scotland, Wales and the United Kingdom for over a thousand years. Fascinating portraits are expertly woven into a history of division and eventual union of the British Isles - even royals we think most familiar are revealed in a new and sometimes surprising light.

This revised and shortened edition of The Mammoth Book of British Kings & Queens includes biographies of the royals of recorded British history, plus an overview of the semi-legendary figures of pre-history and the Dark Ages - an accessible source for students and general readers.

Mike Ashley is the author and editor of over sixty books including the bestselling Mammoths Comic Fantasy, Seriously Comic Fantasy and Fantasy, and the crime-fiction collections The Mammoth Book of Locked Room Mysteries, The Mammoth Book of Roman Whodunnits and The Mammoth Book of Historical Whodunnits.

©2013 Mike Ashley (P)2013 Audible Ltd

Critic reviews

"Everything its title promises. The pages are filled with ... everything anyone might ever want to know about the royals." ( Publishers Weekly)

"Highly recommended." ( Choice)

Everything you need to know!

I loved this audio book! The narrator was fantastic and the sketches were just long enough to to cover the essentials, but short enough to keep me interested. Books like this can be tricky to listen to, with so many facts and dates, but I followed along and while I had a couple of rewinds for content I missed while in traffic (I largely listen in the car), I was able to keep up no problem. Full disclosure, I read the paperback version of this book about ten years ago and am pretty versed with the history of British Royals. So without that, it’s probably not the book for those otherwise engaged while listening.

This book not only covers the English but provides great context for the Welsh and Scottish Royals. One bonus for the audio book vs paper-pronunciation...the Welch language is pretty tricky for an American!

Informative but too much information

There was a vast amount of information in this book and the author did a great job getting it all in. That being said, there was too much time going back and forth between family lines. As an example, we'd hear about line of succession over say 200 years of the English throne, then we'd go back on the same line for Scotland and then Wales. Would have been better to discuss all at the same time so we can reflect on everything that happened during that period.

Difficult to cover everything that was happening so I will give the author a pass. Good book but sometimes got a little boring. I had to work hard to stay engaged.

Best Ever!!!

What did you love best about A Brief History of British Kings and Queens?

Followed all the British kings and queens from the begining
I think it has the most coverage and best information that I have found on this subject

Who was your favorite character and why?

N/A

Which character – as performed by Roger Davis – was your favorite?

N/A

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes--I know I will listen to it several times

Any additional comments?

I would like to see his other book on this subject available for audio

Great Book Will Listen all over again ############

This book was fantastic!!!!!!!!!!!! Story line and over roll performance #######
very happy with purchase

for absolute beginners only

If you want a brief history, this is it. It is necessarily quite superficial and, really, I shouldn't have bought it because I know nearly everything it contains and need depth rather than brevity - my mistake. It might be good for anyone who knows zilch about English history and wants a quick look at the monarchy from its inception until now, but I suspect that anyone interested enough to buy the book would be interested in learning more than this quick sweep can provide. Still, if it's just an overview you want it's well put together and well read and easy to listen to.