Richard III, Vol. 1: The Young King To Be

This first part of a new two volume biography of Richard III, already one of the most written about English Kings, concentrates on his early life prior to usurping the crown, from his birth in 1452 down to 1475 and his opposition to the Treaty of Picquigny which definitively ended the Hundred Years War. It's meticulously researched and you can imagine the level of detail involved in the coverage of only 23 years of the young man's life, but this doesn't make for a dry or dull read, for the book although academic in scope also aims to appeal to the large popular market for all things Riccardian. Most importantly there is a degree of objectivity which is often sadly absent from work on Richard - as Wilkinson states he is too complex to be seen simply in terms of good or bad .