Strangest Family

An intensely moving account of George III’s doomed attempt to create a happy, harmonious family, written with astonishing emotional force by a stunning new history writer.

Reviews

‘A masterpiece. Beautifully written, impeccably researched, this heartbreaking narrative of family dysfunction and royal sacrifice is an absolute page-turner’ Amanda Foreman, author of ‘Georgiana’
‘Enthralling … you know you are in the hands of a master narrator as well as a profoundly perceptive historian. And like all great historical writing, the book transcends its immediate story – gripping and moving though that is – to be a timeless reflection on the human condition’ Simon Schama
‘Colourful and brilliantly narrated … excellent both in her narrative skill and her scholarship … Hadlow has produced a perceptive, lively and wonderfully enjoyable book’ Miranda Seymour, Sunday Times
‘Fascinating … in this densely detailed yet fast-paced book, as drama follows drama, the interest never flags … Hadlow is adept at the telling phrase and makes splendid use of the period's vivid letters, diaries and memoirs’ Jenny Uglow, Guardian
‘Engrossing … Hadlow, an accomplished storyteller, assembles a picture full of emotional colour and drama which still resonates today’ Lucy Hughes-Hallett, The Times
‘Truly engrossing. George III and his relatives give us the ultimate family saga, and it almost defies belief that these events really happened. A real-life period drama to lose yourself in’ Lucy Worsley
‘Hadlow's achievement is to unite in a single volume an overview of one family's squabbling, thwarted good intentions and petty vindictiveness … in readable prose, with a welter of detail Hadlow succeeds in her considerable task … This is a discursive, leisurely account, enlivened by Hadlow's infectious enthusiasm’ Sunday Telegraph
‘Hadlow’s energetic, richly detailed debut combines personal sympathy for her subjects with a shrewd alertness to wider significances’ Independent on Sunday