Blenheim: Battle for Europe - Tapa dura

Charles Spencer's new study offers not only a highly accomplished account of the battle and its wider consequences, but also a shrewd and persuasive reassessment of the personalities involved... Spencer's account maintains the detachment of the professional historian, and is safely ancestor-worship free. (THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH)

... thoughtful, interesting and well written... Spencer recovers an approach and authorial voice associated with Winston Churchill, whom indeed he quotes effectively and appropriately... From the excellent scene-setting of the Prologue to the effective battle description, which ably draws on the memoirs of the participants, Charles Spencer successfully combines narrative with analysis. (EVENING STANDARD)

... the Earl has made a remarkable debut as a popular military historian with the absorbing BLENHEIM: Battle for Europe... not to be missed. (SOLDIER)

... compulsively readable. I caught myself biting my fingernails during the account of the Battle of Blenheim... the sheer verve of Spencer's prose brings the battle of Blenheim alive better than any other account I have read since Winston Churchill's... the rest is a fine account of the politics and campaigns of a period that in less capable hands might seem impossibly complicated... vividly written... (Andrew Roberts MAIL ON SUNDAY)

Charles Spencer has written a pacey book, on the whole engaging because of, rather than despit, its exuberance and beautifully illustrated... the maps are good... What Spencer does superbly... is draw the connections and relations within Britain and Europe so that the intrigues of the Restoration, the Glorious Revolution, the Hanoverian succession and the dynastic contortions of the continental war come vividly to life. (THE TIMES)

'Spencer has.... acquitted himself creditably in his debut as a military historian... he displays a lively sense of period... Where Spencer has mad a real contribution to our understanding of the war of the Spanish succession is in his exploitation of the French sources... (THE SUNDAY TIMES)

From the excellent scene-setting of the prologue to the effective battle description, which ably draws on the memoirs of the participants, Spencer successfully combines narrative with analysis... Charles Spencer is to be congratulated for ably drawing back into focus an earlier period when British forces also played a key role in moulding the fortunes of Europe. (THE SCOTSMAN)

Blenheim is a judicious and compelling account of an important but little-known battle. (DAILY TELEGRAPH)

pacy and enjoyable... this is a fine, intelligent, patriotic book which deserves to be read ... (THE SPECTATOR)

There is much to enjoy in this racy fast-paced narrative... A convincing and sympathetic portrait of the Duke himself is also presented, warts and all... The account of the storming of the Schellenberg heights a month before the battle at Blenheim is truly gripping, making effective use of contemporary accounts. (TLS)