The Strangest Family

‘A masterpiece. Beautifully written, impeccably researched, this heartbreaking narrative of family dysfunction and royal sacrifice is an absolute page-turner’ Amanda Foreman, author of ‘Georgiana’‘Enthralling … you know you are in the hands of a master narrator as well as a profoundly perceptive historian. And like all great historical writing, the book transcends its immediate story – gripping and moving though that is – to be a timeless reflection on the human condition’ Simon Schama‘Colourful and brilliantly narrated … excellent both in her narrative skill and her scholarship … Hadlow has produced a perceptive, lively and wonderfully enjoyable book’ Miranda Seymour, Sunday Times‘Fascinating … in this densely detailed yet fast-paced book, as drama follows drama, the interest never flags … Hadlow is adept at the telling phrase and makes splendid use of the period’s vivid letters, diaries and memoirs’ Jenny Uglow, Guardian‘Engrossing … Hadlow, an accomplished storyteller, assembles a picture full of emotional colour and drama which still resonates today’ Lucy Hughes-Hallett, The Times‘Truly engrossing. George III and his relatives give us the ultimate family saga, and it almost defies belief that these events really happened. A real-life period drama to lose yourself in’ Lucy Worsley‘Hadlow’s achievement is to unite in a single volume an overview of one family’s squabbling, thwarted good intentions and petty vindictiveness … in readable prose, with a welter of detail Hadlow succeeds in her considerable task … This is a discursive, leisurely account, enlivened by Hadlow’s infectious enthusiasm’ Sunday Telegraph‘Hadlow’s energetic, richly detailed debut combines personal sympathy for her subjects with a shrewd alertness to wider significances’ Independent on Sunday

Janice Hadlow is Controller of BBC2 and BBC4. In her previous roles as joint Head of History at the BBC and Head of History at Channel 4, she was responsible for commissioning some of the most influential history series of our time from, among others, Simon Schama, David Starkey and Niall Ferguson. Most recently she has introduced to BBC2 a new generation of historians, including Mary Beard, Amanda Vickery, David Reynolds and Lucy Worsley. This is her first book.

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