Lancaster and York

The Wars of the Roses

By: Alison Weir

Narrated by: Maggie Mash

Length: 22 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

Lancater and York is a riveting account of the Wars of the Roses, from the beloved and best-selling historian Alison Weir. The war between the houses of Lancaster and York was characterised by treachery, deceit, and bloody battles. Alison Weir's lucid and gripping account focuses on the human side of history. At the centre of the book stands Henry VI, the pious king whose mental instability led to political chaos, and his wife Margaret of Anjou, who took up her arms in her husband's cause and battled in a violent man's world.

©1995 Alison Weir (P)2012 W F Howes Ltd

Story great, narration annoying

I don’t listen to histories for dramatic acting. I wish they’d release a new recording without cartoonish accents and borderline offensive caricatures of how a foreigner using English sounds. Seriously: Italians, Scots, French etc. people are narrated with really annoying fake accents. What gives? It ruins an otherwise engaging narrative.

Review

Very informative and well written. Explains a lot based on the human response to issues confronted. The accent in quotes was silly to the point of distraction and annoyance, however.

A thrilling story to rival fantasy or fiction

A truly shocking story in-depth details on the political foundation of which started a family feud and later full out civil war. The performance of the narrator starts off rather weak but as the story continiues, the narration becomes better and better. A great audiobook if you are interested in late medieval history.

Making a fascinating topic as boring as possible

This audiobook was like listening to a never ending timeline. I couldn't get past chapter 4.

Needs Editing

The author has included so much minutiae that it was almost impossible to wade through this. She had to include every single noble in the country in her lists of who was where.

The performance was alarming. The narrator would interject words or phrases in what must have been an imitation of an old man. But it was the same voice for Henry VI as for Edward IV and all the rest. The phony Italian and French speakers were simply annoying. Gretel

15th century England's version of " whose on 1st"

This was my second listening of Lancaster & York. I was looking over the titles of books I have listened to some time ago and realized I couldn't recall the thread of the story. So, I must admit my mind must have wandered off through long parts of the story the first time listening. I have thoroughly enjoyed other English history novels by Alison Weir, but this courageous attempt to describe the seesaw like battles and changes of fealty from Henry VI to Edward VIV and back again was more than I could follow. However, I did stay with the book till the end and now have a better, if foggy, appreciation of the brutal carnage and waste of life all wars are. If my knowledge had been more extensive of the period and the characters inhabiting the story, I would have enjoyed the book more. . I'm saying the fault does not lie with Alison Weir's telling of the story, but with my current limited knowledge of the period and the sub-characters involved.

Disappointed

I love Alison Weir and have listen to many of her books I was looking forward to 20+ hours immersed in another of her books. But Lancaster and York was so blah blah I gave up after 2 hours.

more of a history lesson

I was looking for a book like all the others that I have read before with character roles. This book is really more like having a history book being read to you. It really did not hold my interest.

Waaay too much

I was looking forward to this title because I enjoyed Alison Weir's The Six Wives of Henry VIII but found this one frustrating beyond belief. The narrator has a good voice for normal text but she uses accents (such as Italian) and tones (such as pompous or childish) when she is reading a direct quote. The effect is horrible.
As far as the book goes, it is not an easy listen. There are a LOT of names and titles. Way to much for an ordinary reader imo.
Overall experience is not pleasant - even though I struggled to about halfway before giving up.

Skewed greatly by writer’s personal opinions

It becomes quite obvious to even the most novice of historical nonfiction scholarly reader that this writer clearly favors the house of Lancaster and Tudor, taking every possibility to speak unfavorably upon the Woodville family and Queen Elizabeth (consort to Edward IV) in particular.
The first hand accounts selected to represent the popular option of that time is selected both from the house of Lancaster as well as the personal historian of King Henry VII.
The narrator presents a well timed and beautifully voiced tale.