George V

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 – Robbie Millen * The Times, Books of the Year *
Superb – Iona McLaren * Daily Telegraph, Books of the Year *
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 – Ysenda Maxtone Graham * Spectator, Books of the Year *
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 – Simon Heffer * Daily Telegraph *
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 – Ysenda Maxtone Graham * The Times *
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 – Max Hastings * Sunday Times *
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 – Philip Hensher * Spectator *
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 – A. N. Wilson * Times Literary Supplement *
Splendid – Craig Brown * Daily Mail *
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 – Juliet Nicolson

Jane Ridley is Professor of History at Buckingham University, where she teaches an MA course on biography. Her books include The Young Disraeli, acclaimed by Robert Blake as definitive; a highly praised study of the architect Edwin Lutyens and his relationship with his troubled wife, which won the Duff Cooper Prize; and Victoria, a short life written for the Penguin Monarchs series. Her most recent full biography, Bertie- A Life of Edward VII was a Sunday Times bestseller and one of the most critically acclaimed books of its year. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Ridley writes book reviews for the Spectator and other newspapers, and has also appeared on radio and several television documentaries. She lives in London and Scotland.

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