Helen Carr

A sweeping look at an era of upheaval, panic and change. Gripping, powerful history.

A cannily timed new history... [Sceptred Isle] tells the story of the 14th-century Plantagenets with verve.

A highly engaging re-evaluation of a tumultuous century.

Informative, anecdotal and entertaining... So many of the events of that tumultuous century find echoes today.

Gripping... Carr is an eloquent guide to the human realities of a century that often has a hallucinatory quality: vivid, desperate and haunting in its glories and its terrors.

Fast-paced and thrilling... a remarkably evocative account of the high drama, excessive bloodshed and significant societal change during this tumultuous age... hugely enjoyable.

In this vivid, finely researched book, Helen Carr takes us deep into England’s deadly fourteenth century and finds life and human colour. This is a sparkling popular history which brings the Middle Ages' most terrible century to life for a new generation.

Full of colour, with headlong energy, Sceptred Isle brings England’s calamitous fourteenth century to life vividly. While Fortune’s Wheel turns through cycles of famine, plague and war, Helen Carr’s engrossing narrative never loses sight of the complexity, and hope, of human experience.

I didn't want to do anything but read this book for a fortnight. Helen Carr is one of the most talented and compelling historians of her generation.

Thoughtful and dramatic, this is a lesser known period of history told with the pace and fluency of a novel.

Helen Carr is one of our foremost historians and we are so lucky to have her explaining how we got here.

An epic new history of some of the most dramatic decades in England’s past. This book is a triumph - a thrilling narrative history, guided by the expertise of one of our leading historians. Essential reading for anyone hoping to understand the remarkable world of our medieval ancestors.

Gripping, fascinating, beautifully written and deeply researched, this marvellous book takes you right to the cradle of England, the stunning story of the country in its early days. Exciting, new, endlessly engaging.

In this stunningly evocative, immensely enjoyable history of the fourteenth century, Carr proves equally adept at centring women’s experiences as writing battles.

Suzannah Lipscomb, author of A Visitor's Companion to Tudor England

A fast-paced tour of the reigns of three very different Plantagenet kings, full of chivalrous knights, canny queens, plotting earls and gossipy chroniclers. Conjures all the drama and intrigue of this seismic century of English political history.

Carr offers an engrossing, compelling guide to the fourteenth century - the great Plantagenet supernova - and I devoured it like a hungry heraldic leopard.

Amy Jeffs, author of Storyland: A New Mythology of Britain

Enlivened by vivid descriptions and enriched by appreciating the human factor in events, Sceptred Isle gives a clear and compelling account of a tumultuous period.

David Carpenter, Professor of Medieval History, King's College London

The fourteenth century is brought to life in this evocative, gripping and carefully researched narrative. This is a must read for anyone wanting to understand this tumultuous period.

Kavita Puri, multi-award-winning journalist and chair of the Women's Prize for Non-fiction 2025

One of the most exciting new voices in narrative history.

Superb, gripping and fascinating, here is John of Gaunt and a cast of kings, killers and queens brought blazingly, sensitively and swashbucklingly to life. An outstanding debut.

A sweeping look at an era of upheaval, panic and change. Gripping, powerful history

A cannily timed new history... [Sceptred Isle] tells the story of the 14th-century Plantagenets with verve

A highly engaging re-evaluation of a tumultuous century

Informative, anecdotal and entertaining... So many of the events of that tumultuous century find echoes today

Gripping... Carr is an eloquent guide to the human realities of a century that often has a hallucinatory quality: vivid, desperate and haunting in its glories and its terrors

Fast-paced and thrilling... a remarkably evocative account of the high drama, excessive bloodshed and significant societal change during this tumultuous age... hugely enjoyable

I didn't want to do anything but read this book for a fortnight. Helen Carr is one of the most talented and compelling historians of her generation

Thoughtful and dramatic, this is a lesser known period of history told with the pace and fluency of a novel

Helen Carr is one of our foremost historians and we are so lucky to have her explaining how we got here

An epic new history of some of the most dramatic decades in England’s past. This book is a triumph - a thrilling narrative history, guided by the expertise of one of our leading historians. Essential reading for anyone hoping to understand the remarkable world of our medieval ancestors

Gripping, fascinating, beautifully written and deeply researched, this marvellous book takes you right to the cradle of England, the stunning story of the country in its early days. Exciting, new, endlessly engaging

A fast-paced tour of the reigns of three very different Plantagenet kings, full of chivalrous knights, canny queens, plotting earls and gossipy chroniclers. Conjures all the drama and intrigue of this seismic century of English political history

Carr offers an engrossing, compelling guide to the fourteenth century - the great Plantagenet supernova - and I devoured it like a hungry heraldic leopard

The fourteenth century is brought to life in this evocative, gripping and carefully researched narrative. This is a must read for anyone wanting to understand this tumultuous period

One of the most exciting new voices in narrative history

Superb, gripping and fascinating, here is John of Gaunt and a cast of kings, killers and queens brought blazingly, sensitively and swashbucklingly to life. An outstanding debut

A New History of the Fourteenth Century

From the bestselling author Helen Carr, a thrilling new history of the fourteenth century – a time of catastrophe and conflict that shaped England for centuries to come. 
 
***THE TOP TEN BESTSELLER AND TIMES BEST BOOKS OF 2025 PICK*** 
 
'A sparkling popular history which brings the Middle Ages' most terrible century to life for a new generation' 
Dan Jones 
 
'Tells the story of the 14th-century Plantagenets with verve' 
The Times 
 
'A highly engaging re-evaluation of a tumultuous century' 
Observer 
 
 
The death of Edward I in 1307 marked the beginning of a period of intense turmoil and change in England. The fourteenth century ushered in the beginning of the bloody Hundred Years’ War with France, an epic conflict with Scotland that would last into the sixteenth century, famine in Northern Europe and the largest human catastrophe in known history, the Black Death. 
Through the epic drama of regicide, war, the prolonged spectre of bubonic plague, religious antagonism, revolt and the end of a royal dynasty, this book tells the story of the fourteenth century via the lives of Edward II, Edward III and Richard II – three very different monarchs, each with their own egos and ambitions, each with their own ideas about England and what it meant to wield power. 
 
Alongside the lives of the last Plantagenets, it also uncovers lesser-known voices and untold stories to give a new portrait of a fractured monarchy, the birth of the struggle between Europeanism and nationalism, social rebellion and a global pandemic. 
 
Sceptred Isle is a thrilling narrative account of a century of revolution, shifting power and great change – social, political and cultural – shedding new light on a pivotal period of English history and the people who lived it. 
 
Praise for Sceptred Isle 
'A sweeping look at an era of upheaval, panic and change. Gripping, powerful history' 
Hallie Rubenhold 
 
'A cannily timed new history... [Sceptred Isle] tells the story of the 14th-century Plantagenets with verve' 
The Times 
 
'A highly engaging re-evaluation of a tumultuous century' 
Observer 
 
'Informative, anecdotal and entertaining... So many of the events of that tumultuous century find echoes today' 
Financial Times 
 
'Gripping... Carr is an eloquent guide to the human realities of a century that often has a hallucinatory quality: vivid, desperate and haunting in its glories and its terrors' 
Spectator 
 
'Fast-paced and thrilling... a remarkably evocative account of the high drama, excessive bloodshed and significant societal change during this tumultuous age... hugely enjoyable' 
Country Life 
 
'Excellent' 
Clive Anderson, Loose Ends (BBC Radio4) 
 
'In this vivid, finely researched book, Helen Carr takes us deep into England’s deadly fourteenth century and finds life and human colour. This is a sparkling popular history which brings the Middle Ages' most terrible century to life for a new generation' 
Dan Jones 
 
'Full of colour, with headlong energy, Sceptred Isle brings England’s calamitous fourteenth century to life vividly. While Fortune’s Wheel turns through cycles of famine, plague and war, Helen Carr’s engrossing narrative never loses sight of the complexity, and hope, of human experience' 
Helen Castor

Helen Carr

Praise for Sceptred Isle

A sweeping look at an era of upheaval, panic and change. Gripping, powerful history.

A cannily timed new history... [Sceptred Isle] tells the story of the 14th-century Plantagenets with verve.

A highly engaging re-evaluation of a tumultuous century.

A sweeping look at an era of upheaval, panic and change. Gripping, powerful history.

A cannily timed new history... [Sceptred Isle] tells the story of the 14th-century Plantagenets with verve.

A highly engaging re-evaluation of a tumultuous century.

A sweeping look at an era of upheaval, panic and change. Gripping, powerful history.

A cannily timed new history... [Sceptred Isle] tells the story of the 14th-century Plantagenets with verve.

A highly engaging re-evaluation of a tumultuous century.

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