The Last King Of Poland

Intelligent, impressively researched, beautifully written -- Neal Ascherson * INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY *
A tragic tale beautifully told. Zamoyski's prose does not dazzle, nothing is strained, it is cool and pellucid. He is a great writer and his biography is very readable and instructive -- J B Plumb * FINANCIAL TIMES *
His wonderfully fresh and vigorous style carries even the ignorant reader easily through a historical tangle which in most other authors would remain indigestible and wearisome -- John Joliffe * SPECTATOR *
Writing eastern European history is almost literally a nightmare: a surface of operetta, beneath which lurk endless, apparently pointless, complications, all ending in disaster. Adam Zamoyski has risen with great triumph above this, and has contributed a work of real scholarship that is also remarkably easy to read. He has written before - a good life of Chopin, an excellent one of Paderewski - but has not done better than this book: its sources are original and multilingual, its understanding of 18th-century politics and diplomacy is impeccable -- Norman Stone * SUNDAY TIMES *
This is a book that anyone charged with responsibility, or who cares about power and its use, would do well to read -- Roderic Dunnett * THE EUROPEAN *
This sparkling study is both a fascinating biography and a pertinent reminder of the past instability of Eastern Europe -- Jeremy Black * THE TIMES *
This is an exhilarating, flawlessly disciplined performance. A biography of the unfortunate Stanislaw Poniatowski, written with tremendous brio and full of shrewd sidelights on the tyrannical imperatives of international politics then and now -- Jonathan Keates * OBSERVER *
THE LAST KING OF POLAND is a magnificent panorama of one of the saddest periods in Poland's history -- Radek Sikorski * DAILY TELEGRAPH *
There can be few writers as well qualified as Adam Zamoyski to assess the life and work of Poland's last king. Not only is he a master of the art of biography but he also possesses a sound knowledge of Polish political and cultural history and is able to place it well within a wide European context. Zamoyski's book is an outstanding achievement -- Hubert Zawadzki * CATHOLIC HERALD *
A fine book, THE LAST KING OF POLAND marries freshness of scholarship with a welcome, accessible approach. It scores on numerous counts. Early amours are depicted with Mozartian charm; the web of political intrigue unfolds like an appetising detective novel * SCOTSMAN *
Elegantly written and thoroughly researched ... a delightful example of the biographer's art, with a text as sensitive to the subject's personality as it is expert in the affairs of the subject's times * TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT *