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The Perfect King

The Life of Edward III

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The Perfect King

By: Ian Mortimer
Narrated by: Alex Wyndham
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About this listen

From the best-selling author of The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England comes the story of King Edward III, who - like Elizabeth and Victoria after him - embodied the values of his age, forged a nation out of war and remade England.

Edward’s life is one of the most extraordinary in all English history. He ordered his uncle to be beheaded, he usurped his father’s throne and he started a war which lasted for more than a hundred years. He took the crown when it was at its lowest point and raised it to new heights, presenting himself as a new King Arthur, victorious across Europe. He was the architect of many English icons - from parliamentary rule to the adoption of English as the official language and even the building of a great clock tower at Westminster. Yet behind the strong warrior king was a compassionate, conscientious and often merciful man - resolute yet devoted to his wife, friends and family, and the father of both the English nation and the English people.

©2014 Ian Mortimer (P)2016 Tantor Europe Great Britain Medieval Royalty England Middle Ages War Tudor

Critic reviews

"An excellent biography; entertaining as well as informative." (Daily Telegraph)

"A fascinating portrait. At times, the reader seems almost able to reach across time and touch this man." (The Economist)

"In producing this fine biography, Mortimer has succeeded magnificently, and has gone a long, long way towards restoring Edward III to his proper place as one of the great makers of this nation." (Daily Mail)
All stars
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I was enthralled by this book,such an exciting and important life. Why hasn't anyone made a film of this.
The narrator unfortunately lost a star for his lack of research on how to pronounce common English place names

Fascinating

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Fascinating book, well researched and written but I found the narrators voice monotonous and pleading so that it was both hard to focus on and also wearing to listen to.

Fascinating book, shame about the narration.

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The narration sounds like it was recorded in two sentences, then paused.
First goes up, second goes down.
Made it such a hard listen I’m sorry to say.

Great story, but…..

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Having never read much about Edward 3 I wondered what I would make of this audiobook, but I found it surprisingly good. I was taken by the author's alternate view on Edward 2 so much so that I read up elsewhere on the pros and cons of the argument. I felt that it covers the ground of this king's reign well without being too difficult. I recommend it.

Surprisingly Good.

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Very interesting. The authors views are not supported completely by the majority of scholars and other views are ignored. Also skips a lot in the last hour so couldn't finish.

Interesting but last hour or so skips

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