The Song of Simon de Montfort
20 August 2020Imprint: Picador
Synopsis
'Alive with human detail and acute political judgement, this book marks the arrival of a formidably gifted historian.' – Dan Jones, author of The Plantagenets and The Templars
It was around half-past eight in the morning, with summer rainclouds weighing heavy in the sky, that Simon de Montfort decided to die. It was 4 August 1265 and he was about to...
Details
20 August 2020368 pages
9781509837632Imprint: Picador
Reviews
One of the finest medieval biographies of recent years.Gareth Russell, The Times
This is an astonishingly assured debut by an extremely talented young historian. Exhaustively researched and beautifully written, it traces the remarkable life of a military and political giant of the medieval period who has never been more convincingly portrayedSaul David, Daily Telegraph
It’s hard to get into the heads of people who lived 800 years ago. This book goes further than you might think possible, by a clever use of letters, legal documents and chronicles; at times, we really can hear this man speak . . . This is a remarkable book: beautifully presented (with good maps and illustrations), finely written and based on a deep, scholarly knowledge of the sources. It’s rare to find a story and a storyteller so well matched.Noel Malcolm, Sunday Telegraph
Sophie Therese Ambler’s engaging new biography will enthral and horrify in equal measure … The Song of Simon de Montfort is a well-researched, elegantly written and lively portrait of a problematic figure. Sunday TimesSunday Times
