From the reviews of Marlborough: England’s Fragile Genius:
‘Unbeatable military history, with rattling narrative vitality, full of political plots, grand strategy, battlefield carnage and dynastic vainglory, and with a piercing empathy for commanders and cannon fodder alike’
RICHARD DAVENPORT-HINES, Sunday Telegraph, Books of the Year
‘As comprehensive an account of Marlborough as a single volume can hope to be … In his descriptions of the great set-piece battles [Holmes’s] eye for detail, grasp of subject, deployment of sources, and familiarity with physical terrain, which distinguishes all his military writing, combine to produce as lucid and vivid an account of warfare as one could ask for’
Spectator
‘[Holmes] has certainly done his subject full justice by crafting a quite brilliant, judicious and fully rounded portrait that should go some way to restoring Marlborough’s reputation as a truly Great Briton’
Sunday Telegraph
‘Though [Richard Holmes] guides us sure-footedly through the political and diplomatic maze, it is his account of Marlborough’s organisation of the army and campaigns, and his lucid descriptions of the battles, that make this work outstanding’
Daily Telegraph
‘Holmes depicts the moral and political landscape of an entire age in this rewarding biography … [He] is as thrilling on his subject’s romantic devotion to his wife … as he is on the battles’
Sunday Times
‘Holmes tells the tale well and fairly, and on the whole elegantly. He has a good eye for the captivating detail and the illuminating quotation. While rightly concentrating on military matters, he fills in the international and political background skilfully … A thorough and readable book’
Literary Review