The Blood in Winter, Jonathan Healey's brilliant narrative history, sees a spry cast of characters navigate the uncertain lead-up to war . . . energetic and exceptional . . . The Blood in Winter takes us beyond the disputes in Westminster. The particularly novel parts of Healey's tale show us how common people were well aware of the vicissitudes of royal fortune, and reflect how ideological splintering in the halls of power was felt throughout England long before the battle-lines were drawn . . . A book that bursts with character, a vivid reconstruction of England on the brink . . . Healey's narrative is original thanks to a well-chosen cast of supporting characters . . . It's a pleasure to read Healey's stylish and fluid prose, and he's fantastic at conveying the importance of “split-second moments” where the tide of history might have turned . . . 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 . . . Healey turns mere names into figures who linger long in the memory. There is hardly a paragraph not enlivened by his eye for the mannerisms, quirks and eccentricities of the actors in his story. The Blood in Winter is a highly accomplished and impressively accessible account of one of the most complicated and consequential series of events in British history. 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 . . . The Blood in Winter 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 . . . Healey's account is an old-fashioned Westminster thriller, meticulously following the relationship between the proud, prickly Charles and his parliamentary critics . . . Healey works hard to create 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

A really lucid, exciting chronicle of a country that fell apart, full of echoes for now and really worth reading

John Harris, Politics Weekly