Constantinople/1453

Constantinople/1453

 

‘One of the most exciting, cliff-hanging stories in world history, and in Roger Crowley’s book it is told extremely well’

Noel Malcolm, Sunday Telegraph

 

‘Engagingly fresh and vivid…The twenty-one-year-old Mehmet (the Ottoman Sultan) emerges from this book as ruthless but innovative, irascible but versatile and, above all, indefatigable – a worthy successor to Alexander and the Roman emperors he admired as much as any Muslim hero.’

Malise Ruthven, Sunday Times

 

‘In this account of the 1453 siege, written in crackling prose by former Istanbul resident Roger Crowley – his first book and not, I hope, his last – we are treated to narrative history at its most enthralling.’

Christopher Silvester, Daily Express

 

‘Crowley manages to invest his retelling with almost nail-biting drama.’

The San Francisco Chronicle

 

‘If all history were written like this, John Grisham would be destitute.’

Contemporary Review

 

‘Crowley’s fascinating account of the years leading up to and the final sacking of Constantinople by the Ottoman Empire reads more like lively fiction than dry recounting of historical events.’

Michael Standaert, Los Angeles Times

 

‘A vivid and readable account of the siege…(And) an excellent traveller’s guide to how and why Istanbul became a Muslim city.’

Philip Mansel, Guardian

 

‘Moving and convincing…Crowley gets you by the throat, switching back and forth between the Ottoman and the Byzantine camps as he leads his story to a nail-biting close.’

Jason Goodwin, Literary Review

 

‘A powerful telling of an extraordinary story, presented with a clarity and a confidence that most academic historians would envy.’

Noel Malcolm, Sunday Telegraph

 

‘More comprehensive and more leisurely than its immediate predecessor in English, Sir Steven Runciman’s The Fall of Constantinople…Roger Crowley’s Constantinople: The Last Great Siege, 1453 tells an old story, but tells it well, with great flair and authority. A carefully paced, compelling and ultimately fair narrative, it is firmly grounded in the original Italian, Greek and (in lesser number) Ottoman accounts.’

Christine Woodhead, Times Literary Supplement

 

‘Gripping…Mixes intriguing details of military history with rich references to the religious imagery that influenced both parties.’

The Economist