Jonathan Healey's brilliant narrative history, sees a spry cast of characters navigate the uncertain lead-up to war . . . Energetic and exceptional . . . Takes us beyond the disputes in Westminster . . . A book that bursts with character, a vivid reconstruction of England on the brink . . . It's a pleasure to read Healey's stylish and fluid prose . . . A rollicking history, packed with fire and excitement

Daniel Brooks, Telegraph

A lucid, fast-paced and exhilarating account of how, if not necessarily why, England descended into civil war . . . Vivid details brighten almost every page . . . There is hardly a paragraph not enlivened by his eye for the mannerisms, quirks and eccentricities of the actors in his story . . . Highly accomplished and impressively accessible . . . Its pages teem with larger-than-life personalities and dramatic incident . . . The House of Cards-ish drama remains gripping to the last

John Adamson, Literary Review

Gripping . . . A galloping narrative . . . Healey deftly joins the dots between several points of no return. He writes briskly and accessibly, even to the point of tabloid snappiness . . . Discreetly, and persuasively, merges different currents in civil war history . . . Healey makes these elite manoeuvres lucid, lively, even suspenseful . . . Gives us gripping history from below as well as from above

Boyd Tonkin, Financial Times

Netflix should make this enjoyable English civil war history into an epic drama . . . An old-fashioned Westminster thriller, meticulously following the relationship between the proud, prickly Charles and his parliamentary critics . . . Creates a sense of atmosphere from the confusing, claustrophobic warren of the Palace of Westminster to the reeking streets of the City of London

Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times

Gives a relatively familiar narrative startling freshness . . . A fine, engaging and judicious book

Marcus Neavitt, Spectator

Such detailed coverage, with the chronology whittled down to months, days, hours and, ultimately, minutes, rests upon the wealth of contemporary accounts that Healey draws upon . . . The Blood in Winter unfolds against an atmospheric reconstruction of Stuart society. In particular, Healey succeeds in evoking the sights, sounds and smells of the palaces, taverns and backstreets of London

Stephen Brumwell, Wall Street Journal