**THE TELEGRAPH'S BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024**

'A glorious work of history... a gripping and haunting tragedy... There was no book published this year, novels included, that I found richer in character; no plot more taut' - Tom Holland, The Spectator

'A dazzling tour de force of epic royal history: a compulsive, unputdownable real-life thriller, a gripping portrait of ruthless power politics, and a study of British tyranny ... written with the delicacy and elegance of one of Britain's most brilliant historians at the top of her game' - Simon Sebag-Montefiore

'If ever a book of history was blessed with contemporary relevance, this one is. The dumbfounding, delusional, narcissistic King Richard; the white-knuckle ride of Henry IV, dogged all the way by notions of illegitimacy. I feel these men could have been ripped from today's headlines. The book's great achievement is in the storytelling - the unfolding drama, the secrets of power and ambition so beautifully controlled in the telling. The Eagle and the Hart will be a non-fiction book of the year and will deserve the ovations it is certain to receive. When history is this gripping there's nothing like it' - Andrew O'Hagan

The author of She-Wolves chronicles the lives and reigns of Richard II and Henry IV, two cousins whose rivalry brought their nation to the brink of disintegration - and back again

Richard of Bordeaux and Henry Bolingbroke were first cousins, born just three months apart. Their lives were from the beginning entwined. When they were still children, Richard was crowned King Richard II with Henry at his side, carrying the sword of state: a ten-year-old lord in the service of his ten-year-old king.

Yet, as the animals on their heraldic badges showed, they grew up to be opposites: Richard was the white hart, a thin-skinned narcissist, and Henry the eagle, a chivalric hero, a leader who inspired loyalty where Richard inspired only fear. Henry had all the qualities Richard lacked, all the qualities a sovereign needed, bar one: birth right. Increasingly threatened by his charismatic cousin, Richard became consumed by the need for total power, in a time of constant conflict, rebellions and reprisals. When he banished Henry into exile, the stage was set for a final confrontation, as the hart became the tyrant and the eagle his usurper.

Helen Castor tells this story of one of the strangest and most fateful relationships in English history. It is a story about power, and masculinity in crisis, and a nation brought to the brink of catastrophe. At its heart, it is the story of two men whose lives were played out in extraordinary parallel, to devastating effect.

About the Author
Helen Castor is an acclaimed medieval and Tudor historian. Her books include the prize-winning Blood & Roses, She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England before Elizabeth, and Joan of Arc, dubbed 'a triumph of history'. She has presented a range of radio and television programmes for the BBC and Channel 4, including documentaries based on She-Wolves and Joan of Arc. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Fellow Commoner of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and was a judge for the 2022 Booker Prize. She has one son, and lives in London.

Reviews
A brilliant achievement.... not just a glorious work of history but a gripping and haunting tragedy. She is not, of course, the first writer to have made a drama out of the crisis that brought the Lancastrians to power, but it is the measure of her genius for narrative and character that the tale she tells does not remotely suffer from comparison with Shakespeare... There was no book published this year, novels included, that I found richer in character; no plot more taut -- Tom Holland * The Spectator *
The Eagle and the Hart is packed with drama and incident, but it's also written with an electrifying sense of the tensions between individuals and institutions, innovation and tradition, legitimacy and tyranny. This is a masterpiece of narrative history -- Matthew Lyons * The Telegraph *
The Eagle and the Hart is a meticulous account of the precariousness of kingship and the psychology of power. It is also a rattlingly good story, told with scholarship and humanity by one of our finest historians -- Helen Carr * The Spectator *
Luminous... a rich and vivid history of the Plantagenet cousins and rivals for the English throne... Helen Castor is a historian of great nuance and meticulous scholarship -- Kathryn Hughes * The Guardian *
An exhaustively researched and beautifully written account... The Eagle and the Hart reads not just as a political epic but as a timely reflection on both the dangers of egomaniacal rulers and the challenges facing those who replace them -- Katherine Harvey * The Times *
A compelling narrative... which conveys the complexities of politics in this fascinating time in exemplary style, with a sharp eye for personality and a profound understanding of the period -- Jonathan Sumption * The Literary Review *
The book is astonishingly good. I cannot recommend it highly enough. It is both a gripping, moving, deeply humane study of two contrasting cousins, and a clear-eyed dissection of late medieval England's polity -- Dan Jones * History, Etc *
Among the front rank of writers producing thoughtful and engaging popular history, Helen Castor... examines complex events and an extensive cast of personalities in clear, uncluttered prose -- Stephen Brumwell * Wall Street Journal *
The Eagle and the Hart brings the 14th century to life in all its gaudy colour, terrifying bloodletting and high drama. A book to feast on * The London Standard *
An utterly gripping and compelling tale of a deadly rivalry, told with Helen Castor's characteristic verve and exceptional scholarship. The intrigue, turbulence and sheer drama of the Plantagenet age is brought vividly to life throughout. One of the best history books I've read in years -- Tracy Borman
Helen Castor is the historian's historian and the writer's writer. She combines exceptional scholarship with acute psychological insight and gorgeous, pulsating prose. The Eagle and the Hart is a tour de force: a thrilling tale of royal rivalry and a brilliant dissection of the dark heart of political power - both in the 14th century and for all time -- Jessie Childs
Real page-turning history, this remarkable book has all the scholarship of an academic thesis, yet also all the narrative force of a well-written thriller. This tale of high politics, assassinations, family quarrels, the Peasants' Revolt, tournaments, foreign wars - and at the heart of it all, the gripping drama of two rivals for one crown - is all told in Helen Castor's witty and alluring prose style -- Andrew Roberts
A sublime combination of scholarship and narrative flair. Ravishing! -- Suzannah Lipscomb
Forget William and Harry. The rivalry between cousins Richard II and Henry IV brought 14th-century England to the brink of destruction - as chronicled in Castor's gripping dual biography * The Telegraph *
A stupendous piece of scholarship which brings the high Middle Ages alive -- Neil Denny * BookBrunch *
A dazzling tour de force of epic royal history: a compulsive, unputdownable real-life thriller, a gripping portrait of ruthless power politics, and a study of British tyranny based on deep archival research and masterful scholarship, a tragedy of personality, paranoia and megalomania written with the delicacy and elegance of one of Britain's most brilliant historians at the top of her game -- Simon Sebag-Montefiore
If ever a book of history was blessed with contemporary relevance, this one is. The dumbfounding, delusional, narcissistic King Richard; the white-knuckle ride of Henry IV, dogged all the way by notions of illegitimacy. I feel these men could have been ripped from today's headlines. The book's great achievement is in the storytelling - the unfolding drama, the secrets of power and ambition so beautifully controlled in the telling. The Eagle and the Hart will be a non-fiction book of the year and will deserve the ovations it is certain to receive. When history is this gripping there's nothing like it -- Andrew O'Hagan
Phenomenal historian Helen Castor's masterful plume plunges us into the depths of machination and the abyss of tragedy. This is a masterpiece that leaves the reader both satiated and breathless -- Olivette Otele
The Eagle and the Hart makes clear why this consequential moment in English history so captured Shakespeare's imagination. In recounting the gripping story of how Henry of Bolingbroke came to seize the crown of his cousin Richard II, Helen Castor brings their lives as well as this politically fraught (and still resonant) period to life. It is a massive and deeply researched undertaking, beautifully told, and a richly rewarding read -- James Shapiro
A brilliant achievement.... not just a glorious work of history but a gripping and haunting tragedy. She is not, of course, the first writer to have made a drama out of the crisis that brought the Lancastrians to power, but it is the measure of her genius for narrative and character that the tale she tells does not remotely suffer from comparison with Shakespeare... There was no book published this year, novels included, that I found richer in character; no plot more taut -- Tom Holland * The Spectator *
The Eagle and the Hart is packed with drama and incident, but it's also written with an electrifying sense of the tensions between individuals and institutions, innovation and tradition, legitimacy and tyranny. This is a masterpiece of narrative history -- Matthew Lyons * The Telegraph *
The Eagle and the Hart is a meticulous account of the precariousness of kingship and the psychology of power. It is also a rattlingly good story, told with scholarship and humanity by one of our finest historians -- Helen Carr * The Spectator *
Luminous... a rich and vivid history of the Plantagenet cousins and rivals for the English throne... Helen Castor is a historian of great nuance and meticulous scholarship -- Kathryn Hughes * The Guardian *
An exhaustively researched and beautifully written account... The Eagle and the Hart reads not just as a political epic but as a timely reflection on both the dangers of egomaniacal rulers and the challenges facing those who replace them -- Katherine Harvey * The Times *
A compelling narrative... which conveys the complexities of politics in this fascinating time in exemplary style, with a sharp eye for personality and a profound understanding of the period -- Jonathan Sumption * The Literary Review *
The book is astonishingly good. I cannot recommend it highly enough. It is both a gripping, moving, deeply humane study of two contrasting cousins, and a clear-eyed dissection of late medieval England's polity -- Dan Jones * History, Etc *
Among the front rank of writers producing thoughtful and engaging popular history, Helen Castor... examines complex events and an extensive cast of personalities in clear, uncluttered prose -- Stephen Brumwell * Wall Street Journal *
The Eagle and the Hart brings the 14th century to life in all its gaudy colour, terrifying bloodletting and high drama. A book to feast on * The London Standard *
An utterly gripping and compelling tale of a deadly rivalry, told with Helen Castor's characteristic verve and exceptional scholarship. The intrigue, turbulence and sheer drama of the Plantagenet age is brought vividly to life throughout. One of the best history books I've read in years -- Tracy Borman
Helen Castor is the historian's historian and the writer's writer. She combines exceptional scholarship with acute psychological insight and gorgeous, pulsating prose. The Eagle and the Hart is a tour de force: a thrilling tale of royal rivalry and a brilliant dissection of the dark heart of political power - both in the 14th century and for all time -- Jessie Childs
Real page-turning history, this remarkable book has all the scholarship of an academic thesis, yet also all the narrative force of a well-written thriller. This tale of high politics, assassinations, family quarrels, the Peasants' Revolt, tournaments, foreign wars - and at the heart of it all, the gripping drama of two rivals for one crown - is all told in Helen Castor's witty and alluring prose style -- Andrew Roberts
A sublime combination of scholarship and narrative flair. Ravishing! -- Suzannah Lipscomb
Forget William and Harry. The rivalry between cousins Richard II and Henry IV brought 14th-century England to the brink of destruction - as chronicled in Castor's gripping dual biography * The Telegraph *
A stupendous piece of scholarship which brings the high Middle Ages alive -- Neil Denny * BookBrunch *
A dazzling tour de force of epic royal history: a compulsive, unputdownable real-life thriller, a gripping portrait of ruthless power politics, and a study of British tyranny based on deep archival research and masterful scholarship, a tragedy of personality, paranoia and megalomania written with the delicacy and elegance of one of Britain's most brilliant historians at the top of her game -- Simon Sebag-Montefiore
If ever a book of history was blessed with contemporary relevance, this one is. The dumbfounding, delusional, narcissistic King Richard; the white-knuckle ride of Henry IV, dogged all the way by notions of illegitimacy. I feel these men could have been ripped from today's headlines. The book's great achievement is in the storytelling - the unfolding drama, the secrets of power and ambition so beautifully controlled in the telling. The Eagle and the Hart will be a non-fiction book of the year and will deserve the ovations it is certain to receive. When history is this gripping there's nothing like it -- Andrew O'Hagan
Phenomenal historian Helen Castor's masterful plume plunges us into the depths of machination and the abyss of tragedy. This is a masterpiece that leaves the reader both satiated and breathless -- Olivette Otele
The Eagle and the Hart makes clear why this consequential moment in English history so captured Shakespeare's imagination. In recounting the gripping story of how Henry of Bolingbroke came to seize the crown of his cousin Richard II, Helen Castor brings their lives as well as this politically fraught (and still resonant) period to life. It is a massive and deeply researched undertaking, beautifully told, and a richly rewarding read -- James Shapiro



Book Information
ISBN 9780241419328
Author Helen Castor
Format Hardback
Page Count 688
Imprint Allen Lane
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 1153g
Dimensions(mm) 242mm * 163mm * 42mm