Tom Holland, “A gripping, panoramic and timely account of the greatest eighteenth-century crisis to menace the Union of Great Britain.”
“A lively read, combining a good and succinct military account within wider and political social context … I enjoyed and recommend” – Book of the Month, Military History Monthly Magazine. WINNER, SILVER AWARD, BOOK OF THE YEAR 2016
Colin Kidd, The Guardian, “A fresh and historically convincing perspective … An enthralling narrative [and] and a work of penetrating insight and dispassionate balance, which is captivating from start to finish”.
Paul Monod, Court Historian, “For those who know nothing about the rebellion, Jacobites is an excellent place to begin. For those who know much about the subject, Jacqueline Riding provides a comprehensive, fair-minded and well-researched account. She will lead every reader, whatever their expertise, on an exciting and highly entertaining journey”.
Sarah Fraser, Country Life, “Witty and psychologically astute … impeccably researched yet vigorously paced … Riding has mined the archives to retrieve lost voices and her panoramic vision lets us hear the evolution of a national discourse”.
Rab Houston, BBC History Magazine “it is to Jacqueline Riding’s credit that she manages to avoid partiality. Indeed, those who want an accessible, comprehensive, even-handed, and up-to-date survey, without myth or mysticism, apology or polemic, will find her book suits their purposes admirably”, “alert to the implications of the rising for the creation of a truly united United Kingdom and for the formation of the British empire”, “the book has an unusually acute sense of person and place“, “both scholarly and readable, with 60 bite-sized chapters each presenting a detailed, vivid part of a complex rebellion”, “pieced together from many small components and first-hand perspectives … Diplomacy, warfare and politics all feature but so too does human strength and frailty; there are the great and the good (and the not-so-good) but also the more obscure, all with a fascinating part to play in one of Britain’s defining crises.”
Ian Hernon, Tribune Magazine “In this page-turning, impeccably researched account”, the author “weaves a more complex tale than is taught in schools either side of the border”.
Geoffrey Scott, The Tablet, “the most comprehensive account in modern times”, “vivid storytelling and lively characterisation“.
Stuart Kelly, The Scotsman, “a forensic and accomplished account”, “one of the most nuanced and sophisticated histories of the ’45”, “Time and again, it offers fresh perspectives and interesting angles.”
Dominic Green, Literary Review, “substantial, deeply researched and fast-moving history of ‘the Forty-Five’ … which mingles the thrill of revolt with a careful analysis of international contexts and motives.”
Catholic Herald, “Jacqueline Riding achieves a remarkable feat in producing a history which is both compulsively readable and factually packed. Having brilliantly toured the political situation of mid eighteenth-century Western Europe, she takes us along on the political (and then military) campaign trail with the Young Pretender. But the triumph of Riding’s new account of the 1745 rebellion is that, as we move from Rome, through Paris, to Scotland and England, we are taken grippingly from romance to comedy, and even high farce, before the eventual tragedy”.