The Restless: A History of English Kings and Queens

If you think you already know the English kings and queens pretty well, it’s time to doubt that. David Mitchell’s audiobook “The Restless” shows that the monarchs of early England—those formidable determiners of fate—were in everyday life no less ridiculous, strange, and narrow-minded than on their grand portraiture. They simply happened to be on top then.

Starting with King Arthur (spoiler: he wasn’t), Mitchell takes the listener through the history of England all the way to the era of Elizabeth I. This is a story about narcissism and unbridled temperaments, about uprisings and civil wars, about hypocrisy and self-deception. About how the English made their way from frightened victims of a local bully who stole their crops to obedient subjects of the “Lord’s Anointed,” dutifully paying taxes on schedule. How exactly it happened, with whom, why—and by what right it matters at all—Mitchell answers all the questions brilliantly, viciously, and with the erudition of a man who once studied history and still isn’t ready to forgive it for the chaos it has wrought.