Mr. Costain comes to the point in his first sentence: "There is no need for another history of England unless it can be given popular appeal." The best-selling novelist openly declares for the same sort of thing in his new field as that which proved such a success in the old, and there can be little doubt that he will obtain it.

Nevertheless I have my reservations with regard to his performance, as I have also with regard to his novels, in whose dexterity I admit, as in the case of this initial excursion into history, I can find a good deal to praise. ["The Conquerors"] is orderly and has a fund of information of the kind that does not usually appear in works of this category. Color and vivacity are here, and I certainly do not consider them faults, for even historians are (or should be) writers...