So nicely read

Really interesting characters brought to life, you feel as though they are there with you

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Fascinating insights

Brimming with positivity and yet grounded in reality, this wonderful book inspires and motivates. It charters the human spirit striving to pursue the unimaginable.

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I have the Audible version only

There was no audio preview on pre order and I think for me this would be better enjoyed read than listened to - unfortunately as i also paid for it they won’t refund or exchange it for the Kindle version.

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Brilliant

interesting, educational and thoroughly enjoyable.
I just love how this book comes together and how the idea behind it is so innovative and how Alice Loxton makes me want to know more and more history all the time. excellent book. Thank you.

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interesting facts

interesting facts that I have not heard anywhere else. Great listen, alice helps paint a great mental image. review from a male 34.

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disappointing

oh why do authors so often read their own books.. you may be a great research historian and a competent author but you are absolutely not a narrator unless of course this book is supposed to be bedtime stories for 5 year olds. Sadly couldn't even finish the chapter on Bede before abandoning the book.

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1 person found this helpful

Wouldn’t recommend

This book would only be half as long if it did not include imaginary interactions created by the author.
This is not just in reference to the short scenes between chapters, I can understand the gimmick of these even if it isn’t to my taste, but also within the chapters themselves. The author invents conversations between the historical figures she discusses and their acquaintances that we cannot possibly know happened.
This leaves the book feeling like a combination of historical fiction and factual reference book. Neither one of these two genres are bad but walking the tightrope between them didn’t make for an enjoyable reading experience and I did find myself seeing how long was left until the end of the book.
I can appreciate why the author may have padded the chapters out with these hypotheticals. She has attempted to cover a wide range of people as subjects for this book not just a small strata of society. However, this comes with the caveat that a lot of these people have very little written about them and do not have much evidence with which you can write a full, meaty chapter.
For me, I don’t think the concept of looking at the early lives of people who we do not know that much about works. It is ,again, a clashing of two good ideas in a way that just doesn’t work. I could see myself really enjoying a book about the early lives of historical figures where we have detailed accounts of what happened to them as they grew up. Equally, I can see myself really enjoying a book about more obscure people in history who may miss out on inclusion in most history books. I didn’t enjoy the product of the amalgamation of the two.
Adding on to this the glaring omission of the long and glorious premiership of Liz Truss when the author was discussing our female prime ministers at the end of the book just left me a bit disappointed with the book overall.

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