“I feel I’ve been waiting to read this book a long time. It’s a fluent and compelling account of the cost of founding the Tudor dynasty: of a clever, ruthless, enigmatic monarch, a refugee all his early life, king by right of conquest, prepared to harass and frighten his subjects into submission: a man content to be feared and not loved. The level of detail is fascinating and beautifully judged. The book shows what a mistake it is to regard these closing years of the reign simply as a curtain raiser for Henry VIII. I think that, for the first time, a writer has made me feel what contemporaries felt as Henry VII’s reign drew to an end; the relief, the hope, the sudden buoyancy.”

“The research into the players is intricate and multifaceted, and Penn paints a detailed picture of court life with its insecurity, conspiracy, intrigue, diplomacy, and politics at the highest levels…Simon Vance’s rich tenor voice and English accent take listeners back to the era.” 

“An exceptionally stylish literary debut…[Penn’s] book should be the first port of call for anyone trying to understand England’s most flagrant usurper since William the Conqueror.”

“This is an exceptionally stylish literary debut. Henry VII may be the most unlikely person ever to have occupied the throne of England, and his biographers have rarely conveyed just what a weird man he was. Tom Penn does this triumphantly and in the process manages to place his subject in a vividly realized landscape. His book should be the first port of call for anyone trying to understand England’s most flagrant usurper since William the Conqueror.”

“A wonderful read, as rich in character and drama as Wolf Hall, only shorter and true.”

“A definitive and accessible account of the reign of Henry VII.”

“With a sharp eye for detail and adroit use of a gifted historical imagination…[Thomas Penn] lets us hear the creak of oars and the scratch of pens, as well as the tubercular king fighting for every breath…Vigorous and thoroughly enjoyable.”

“[Penn] entertains casual readers with a brisk, almost conversational tone…Tudor scholars will appreciate Penn’s well-documented attention to the elder king’s steadfast devotion to stability, to the character formation of the young heir, Prince Henry, and Penn’s revealing analysis of why in the last years of his reign, Henry earned respect but not love from his people.”

“A definitive and accessible account of the reign of Henry VII that will alter our view not just of Henry but of the country he dominated and corrupted and of the dynasty he founded.”

“Stunning…This is not a new story—but in Penn’s hands, it is a revelation…Penn has pulled off a rare feat: a brilliant and haunting evocation of the Tudor world, with irresistible echoes of the age of fear in which we now live.”

“Winter King offers us the fullest, deepest, most compelling insight into the warped psychology of the Tudor dynasty’s founder to have appeared since [Francis] Bacon wrote.”

“Succeeds brilliantly…[A] finely drawn portrait…Penn’s deft turn of phrase superbly re-creates the drama and personalities of the court.”

“A tour de force.”

“An entertaining, insightful biography featuring a colorful cast of characters, led by the formidable Henry VII, who passed on the first untroubled succession in eighty years, launching the equally turbulent but more familiar Tudor renaissance.”