Fallen Idols

Alex von Tunzelmann is one of the most gifted historians writing today. Brilliant and trenchant, witty and wise, Fallen Idols is a book you will adore, devour, and talk about to everyone you know. Hesitate no longer; buy this book * Suzannah Lipscomb, author, award-winning historian and broadcaster *This timely, sparkling and often hilarious book is all that we have come to expect from Alex von Tunzelmann - witty (often wickedly so) scintillating, skewering pomposity. Readers will relish her eagle-eyed knack of offering jaw dropping anecdote while always keeping us aware of the big picture * Michael Wood, Historian *Like all the best historians von Tunzelmann uses the past to explain what the hell is going on today. She does so with a flair, her signature mix of scholarship and succinctness that is so compelling. If you want to make sense of the statues debate, and the coming culture war over our history, this is where you need to start * Dan Snow *Alexandra von Tunzelmann has chosen a subject akin to a minefield for her new book, except that the mines are statues and very much above ground … Tunzelmann is as skilled a guide as one could wish for; her erudition and light touch are major advantages. There is not a dull sentence in the book, which from the moment American revolutionaries topple George III in New York, grips the reader from start to finish. – Michael Burleigh * Literary Review *It’s a lively, engaging and often witty exploration of why statues are put up, why they are taken down and what this teaches us about history and memory … If it has an agenda, it’s one that urges us to see the layers, the nuance and the different points of view * The Sunday Times *Forensically unpicking polemical arguments from all sides in the debate, von Tunzelmann calmly and deftly guides us through this important issue, while never stopping being hugely informative, surprising and entertaining. * Aspects of History *Timely and necessary. – Philippe Sands * Financial Times *Alex von Tunzelmann deftly captures … [that] … statues are always works in progress: toppled, moved, reworked, re-erected and reinterpreted. There has never been a time when they were not contested. – Mary Beard * Guardian *It’s a timely, well written and often entertaining look at statues that were pulled down not only in 2020’s wave of iconoclasm but in other places and at other times too. * New Statesman - Books of the Year, Richard J Evans *Excellent – Professor Anna Whitelock * BBC History Magazine *

Alex von Tunzelmann lives in London. She read history at University College, Oxford, and afterwards worked as a researcher on books for authors including Jeremy Paxman, Felicity Lawrence, John Kay and Alison Wolf. Her books include the international bestselling Indian Summer.

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