Rating: 
Summary: a masterpiece
Review: Readers familiar with Ann Wroe's majestic Pontius Pilate already know how jawdroppingly adept a writer she is. Those whose tastes adhere more to the historical than the biblical would do well to pick up The Perfect Prince. It tells a fascinating story, and evokes an entire long-lost world with such a vivid immediacy you'd think the author had visited it.Wroe's examination of the mystery of Perkin Warbeck, who may or may not have been one of the Princes in the Tower, victims of Richard III, is entrancing. The real mystery is why her genius isn't more recognized on this side of the Atlantic.
Rating: 
Summary: More than a book---A MESS!
Review: Save your money! The reader who called this a muddled mess was right. I couldn't believe that after reading this book, I came to Amazon expecting to find many negative reviews, but instead found only one reader who dared call this book what it is. I also couldn't help but notice that all the positive reviews so far are from New York, coincidentally where the publisher is located. Hmmm, could it be we have another mystery? This book has so much purple prose you would almost mistake it for an Anne Rice novel instead of a "scholarly" historical tome. I'd say more, but my review would only echo the other negative review here. And unlike the author of this mess, I not only know when too much really IS too much, but I know how to keep on track and not distract from my point by adding completely unnecessary information.
Rating:
Summary: More than a book---A MESS!
Review: Save your money! The reader who called this a muddled mess was right. I couldn't believe that after reading this book, I came to Amazon expecting to find many negative reviews, but instead found only one reader who dared call this book what it is. I also couldn't help but notice that all the positive reviews so far are from New York, coincidentally where the publisher is located. Hmmm, could it be we have another mystery? This book has so much purple prose you would almost mistake it for an Anne Rice novel instead of a "scholarly" historical tome. I'd say more, but my review would only echo the other negative review here. And unlike the author of this mess, I not only know when too much really IS too much, but I know how to keep on track and not distract from my point by adding completely unnecessary information.
Rating: 
Summary: Who Was This Unknown Person?
Review: This epistle is billed as an unexplained mystery of the medieval era. Historian, writer for the extremist publication "The Economist", Ann Wroe uses her own type of philosophy to put a 'soul' in this person -- a soul she can't truly imagine as you have to look into a person's eyes yourself to see his soul. I saw the most gentle blue eyes (fooled me) in a person who was most egotisical. Sometimes, the eyes are those of deceit, not a person's soul at all. Now, this story would make a lavish movie using the star of KING ARTHUR as Perkins Warbeck, a commoner of Flanders. It is just the sort they are grinding out and we are being bombarded with at the theaters with reprises of old historical epics in modern terms. It would be fun to watch a real commoner fool all those pompous royal families who know nothing except a lavish existence. He was the Great Pretender and no one really discovered who theman was. He'd influenced rulers of Spain, France, Scotland and other principalities -- the consumate con man of all time -- as the imposter to the throne of England. For eight years, he harassed the King attempting to take the throne as Duke of York, the young Richard who had been killed with his brother in the tower of London by his uncle, Richard III. He was courted by the aristocracy of several nations in Europe as THE PERFECT PRINCE because of his charisma, manners (where did he learn them if he had been simply the son of a boatman?), and his handsome appearance. He married into the royal family, the daughter of an earl. He'd charmed Ferdinand and Isabella, Charles of France, and Maximilian by his wit and elegance. He was used as a pawn by the rulers of European society to get rid of the new King of England. He'd been so brainwashed by the time of his death at the age of twenty-five, it's doubtful he knew himself who he was -- only what he'd been primed (by whom?) to be -- an imposter on the highest level. He lost his campaign for the throne on the gallows, as did so many 'enemies' of the Kings of England, as history will attest. This book, however, is not history. Using research to fuel a vivid imagination (all historians have that failing), she takes liberties as so many writers of history tend to do to expound upon their own theories.
Rating:
Summary: Who Was This Unknown Person?
Review: This epistle is billed as an unexplained mystery of the medieval era. Historian, writer for the extremist publication "The Economist", Ann Wroe uses her own type of philosophy to put a 'soul' in this person -- a soul she can't truly imagine as you have to look into a person's eyes yourself to see his soul. I saw the most gentle blue eyes (fooled me) in a person who was most egotisical. Sometimes, the eyes are those of deceit, not a person's soul at all. Now, this story would make a lavish movie using the star of KING ARTHUR as Perkins Warbeck, a commoner of Flanders. It is just the sort they are grinding out and we are being bombarded with at the theaters with reprises of old historical epics in modern terms. It would be fun to watch a real commoner fool all those pompous royal families who know nothing except a lavish existence. He was the Great Pretender and no one really discovered who theman was. He'd influenced rulers of Spain, France, Scotland and other principalities -- the consumate con man of all time -- as the imposter to the throne of England. For eight years, he harassed the King attempting to take the throne as Duke of York, the young Richard who had been killed with his brother in the tower of London by his uncle, Richard III. He was courted by the aristocracy of several nations in Europe as THE PERFECT PRINCE because of his charisma, manners (where did he learn them if he had been simply the son of a boatman?), and his handsome appearance. He married into the royal family, the daughter of an earl. He'd charmed Ferdinand and Isabella, Charles of France, and Maximilian by his wit and elegance. He was used as a pawn by the rulers of European society to get rid of the new King of England. He'd been so brainwashed by the time of his death at the age of twenty-five, it's doubtful he knew himself who he was -- only what he'd been primed (by whom?) to be -- an imposter on the highest level. He lost his campaign for the throne on the gallows, as did so many 'enemies' of the Kings of England, as history will attest. This book, however, is not history. Using research to fuel a vivid imagination (all historians have that failing), she takes liberties as so many writers of history tend to do to expound upon their own theories.
Rating: 
Summary: Magisterial--much more than a biography...
Review: Those seeking a concise biography of the figure who has come to be known as Perkin Warbeck would best look elsewhere (an encyclopedia perhaps). But those with a taste for more profound, and more profoundly insightful history will be richly rewarded. Ann Wroe provides not just the definitive account of Warbeck in fascinating, meticulous detail but enlarges her narrative to encompass myriad aspects of life in late fifteenth-century western Europe. Readers truly enter into the world Wroe re-creates in almost sculptural dimensionality. This is an exemplary work by a deeply gifted scholar and writer, and also a fascinating read from start to finish.
Rating:
Summary: Worth lugging
Review: With respect to the above gentleman from Pennsylvania, I believe it is, I cannot quite credit that we read the same book. To my mind, Perkin is a majestic work of investigative, scholarly history. Wroe writes with verve and elegance about the closing of the medieval period and the opening out of the new world; it is no coincidence we find Perkin first of all in Portugal, among the adventurers and chancers who were to characterise his ascent. The mystery of Perkin naturally lends itself to speculation and Wroe lets the reader draw his or her own conclusions. I am still making up my own mind as to his identity (if not to his character). Perhaps the best compliment I can pay the book is that, eager to unravel the mystery, I lugged the hefty hardback version of it around Afghanistan through the autumn. The battered survivor (the tome that is) is still doing the rounds in Kabul, where intelligent reading is much in demand.
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