Books by Dan Jones
“Henry’s reign, though so influential—especially in terms of the wars in France, Agincourt, everything like that—was very short. He died very young. So what Dan Jones has done is concentrate on the first decades of his life, before he succeeds his father, showing how he positioned himself, how he trained himself, and how his various competencies were worked into a certain kind of authority. He displayed a real ruthlessness, both in using people and manoeuvring his position. At a certain point, he even seems to have been in opposition to his own father. The king himself, of course, supplanted Richard II, as surveyed in Helen Castor’s book. So it’s a very different figure to the Shakespearean Henry.” Read more...
The Best Historical Biography: The 2025 Elizabeth Longford Prize
Roy Foster, Historian
Interviews where books by Dan Jones were recommended
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1
All His Spies: The Secret World of Robert Cecil
by Stephen Alford -
2
Augustus The Strong: A Study in Artistic Greatness and Political Fiasco
by Tim Blanning -
3
The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV
by Helen Castor -
4
Henry V: The Astonishing Triumph of England's Greatest Warrior King
by Dan Jones -
5
The Rebel's Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon
by Adam Shatz
The Best Historical Biography: The 2025 Elizabeth Longford Prize, recommended by Roy Foster
The Best Historical Biography: The 2025 Elizabeth Longford Prize, recommended by Roy Foster
A good historical biography should help us redefine and rethink what makes a person historically significant, says Roy Foster, chair of the judging panel of the Elizabeth Longford Prize. He talks us through the brilliant books that made the 2025 shortlist, including the lives of various monarchs who left their mark on European history, a portrait of an early modern spymaster, and a biography of Frantz Fanon, the anti-colonial writer.
