'The Restless Kings' written by Dr Nick Barratt, Director of SHL, Dr Nick Barratt, longlisted for 2019 Historical Writers Association prize

'The Restless Kings' written by Dr Nick Barratt, Director of Senate House Library, has been long-listed for the 2019 Historical Writers Association prize. On receiving the news, Dr Nick Barratt commented: ‘I’m honoured and humbled to have been selected for the long list - a wonderful surprise’.

In The Restless Kings Nick Barratt presents the tumultuous struggle for supremacy between the first Plantagenet king, Henry II, and his four sons. This conflict tore apart the most powerful family in Western Europe and shaped the future of both Britain and France, with a significance which still resonates today. Exploring the personalities and crises facing this extraordinary family, The Restless Kings brings to life some of the most remarkable, complex, flawed and brilliant monarchs ever to have sat on the English throne, and will challenge everything you thought you knew about the medieval world. 

As well as being the Director of Senate House Library, Dr Nick Barratt is an author, broadcaster and historian best known for the BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are? and one of his most recent books, The Forgotten Spy, which tells the story of his great uncle; 'Stalin’s first mole in Whitehall'.