Most biographers would shy away from the notoriously dull George V. Not so Ridley, whose biography of the stamp-collecting, bird-shooting king is top-notch

Superb

Jane Ridley’s George V is so sparklingly incisive about both the king and Queen Mary that it almost counts as a double biography. The pheasant-shooting, stamp-collecting, moderating monarch and his bejewelled, shopaholic consort are beautifully portrayed in all their complexities

Superb . . . a perfectly candid portrait of our present Queen’s grandfather: demythologised, certainly, and with spades called spades, but not trivialised, and not denied full credit for the massive amount he achieved . . . Ridley’s convincing thesis [is] that George V was the true begetter of modern constitutional monarchy . . . this book makes it clear we were lucky to have him

There have been few monarchs quite as discreet and inscrutable as George V . . . There’s much to enjoy here about George’s nerdy, hypochondriacal and rather humourless character. Yet, as Ridley portrays with great fairness, he somehow managed to be a king loved and revered by the people . . . Ridley has a wonderful ability to push the story along, luring us with salient details . . . riveting . . . Never a dull paragraph

A 21st-century [biography] was overdue . . . and nobody could do it better than the immensely experienced Jane Ridley . . . The Windsors have always been emotionally handicapped, and in this respect George V was their prize exhibit

A magnificent new life — wonderfully funny, from its winning subtitle onwards, and full of human sympathy and understanding . . . an evocative and touching portrait of a surprisingly impressive man

The best royal biography since James Pope-Hennessy’s Queen Mary (1959) . . . rivetingly interesting . . . sheds an entirely new light on both George V and his consort . . . Jane Ridley persuades us that their tactful handling of the many crises of the reign paved the way for the stable constitutional monarchy that persists to this day

Splendid

Jane Ridley is a consummate storyteller and superb researcher. With a funny, analytical, sympathetic touch she both conveys the immediacy of history and invests those elusive, long-ago events and mysterious, long-dead people with a humanity recognisable to us all

A big beautiful beast of a book. Fair, thorough and unexpectedly funny, it won’t be surpassed for decades

Jane Ridley has written the definitive biography of George V. Sharply observed, revealing and very absorbing, ‘dull George’ and his dutiful wife, Mary, emerge in a new light as the monarchies of Europe crumble around them and the horrors of the early twentieth century unfold. At a pivotal time in the history of our democracy, with world leaders tested to their limits, Jane gives a gripping and authoritative account of what was happening behind palace doors

A truly inspirational new biography of George V

A superb book; arguably it is the best biography of George V… immensely readable, wonderfully researched

Ridley is good on the telling detail . . . lively and unstuffy

[George V] is candid, well written, based on wide research and full of piquant detail, some of it new

This deeply researched biography casts new light upon the misunderstood monarch and his Queen, Mary of Teck. Illuminating, intensely readable

Sparkling

Riveting… Ridley brings new insight to George’s personal life… Well-researched and entertaining, this book offers a vluable reassessment of a king who shaped modern Britain

[A] graceful, funny book… Ridley offers fine-grained and astute sketches of members of the king’s entourage as they came and went