The first nine volumes get the Penguin Monarchs series off to an impressive start. It appears that the authors (an eminent bunch) are at liberty to choose specific narrative strategies: some opt for a conventional route march through their subject’s reign while others take a more thematic or impressionistic approach. The more meandering volumes occasionally test one’s patience but in all cases readers will emerge with the requisite facts and an insight into recent scholarship: no small feat given that everything has to be fitted into 100 pages or so. These are much more than Ladybird books for grown-ups.Some of the volumes are likely to transform your understanding of a particular king or queen. In Charles I: an abbreviated life, Mark Kishlansky (the very best man for the job)