Isabella of Castile

Magisterial ... Tremletts contention, which he supports with a sublime presentation of facts and interpretation, is that Isabella represents the first member in the exclusive club of great European queens who exercised sovereign power in their own hand -- Starred Review * Booklist * Richly enjoyable He seeks to understand his subject, while never underplaying the appalling impact of some of her decisions. Packed with vivid character sketches and lyrical description, Tremlett has told a gripping story, full of beauty and darkness * The Times * A triumphant and chilling account of the rise of Spain and its New World conquests * Daily Telegraph * Magnificent * Sunday Telegraph * This is a most enjoyable book a lively, intense page-turner written in straight-forward, unpretentious prose Tremlett balances academic scholarship with journalistic flair to produce an enthralling biography -- Rebecca Rist * Tablet * Magnificent * Daily Telegraph * Tremlett uses his gifts as a writer on Spains history to offer us a voluminous biography with fluent and evocative narrative that fully exploits the romantic aspects of the age * Times Literary Supplement * Splendid ***** * Daily Telegraph * The reign of Isabella of Castile and her partnership with Ferdinand of Aragon saw the beginning of the transformation of Spain into a major global power. Tremlett offers a detailed assessment of a woman who to her supporters, was a great Christian monarch, but to her detractors was a fanatical tyrant * Mail on Sunday, Best Paperbacks * Brings to life Europes first great queen in reality, a usurper who began the unification of Spain and, less attractively, the expulsion of both Jews and Muslims, in an early example of ethnic cleansing * Daily Telegraph *

Giles Tremlett is the Madrid correspondent for the Economist. Until 2013, he covered Spain for the Guardian, for which he is now a contributing editor. He has lived in, and written about, Spain for the past twenty years, and is the author of Catherine of Aragon: The Spanish Queen of Henry VIII and Ghosts of Spain: Travels Through Spain and Its Silent Past. He lives in Madrid with his wife and their two children.