Deon Marcus

While attractive and well illustrated, my first concerns came when the House of Tudor family tree at the beginning of the book appears to suggest that Elizabeth I and Edward VI were full siblings, while failing to clarify who their respective mothers were. We are left wondering who Mary Queen of Scots mother was too. I make a point of this as surely it is important, if not essential, to clearly understand how the familial relationships in the House of Tudor worked? I am sure Lady Jane Grey would agree! We then have typos and editing errors which should surely have been picked up? The text reads like a textbook, hurried and all too concerned with squeezing in as many dates, places names and facts as possible, while ample space is honestly wasted on the half-timber designs that are found on almost every page. I suppose this book may have been intended for a younger school-going audience, but as such there are superior alternatives, including Wikipedia - a case where substance does not quite live up to form.