‘Lucy Worsley has created a new kind of history ... this is ‘living’ history, with the details of everyday life in an English country house in the 17th century brought to vivid life. Cavalier is richly entertaining, beautifully illustrated and an absorbing interactive experience’. Kate Chisholm, Daily Mail
‘Enthralling ... a tour de force she pulls off with aplomb ... Worsley’s powerful imagination focuses with great effect on the settings that she evokes with bright and telling detail’. Miranda Seymour, Sunday Times
‘Sensuous and immediate ... Worsley has created an astonishing reconstruction of Cavendish’s life and world. Cavalier is a remarkable achievement but an immensely talented and innovative historian’, Lucy Moore, Mail on Sunday
‘Worsley's strength is her sense of period, and her ability to bring people to life. It is almost as if she knows each of the army of servants that attended the Cavendishes, thanks to her forensic knowledge of the family's archives’. Charles Spencer, Independent on Sunday
‘Marvellous ... a tour de force of the historic imagination, aligned to impeccable scholarship’. Sir Roy Strong
‘Extraordinary ... a fantastic ride from start to finish’, Peter Curran, Loose Ends, BBC Radio 4
‘Breathtaking ... this original book – part history, part biography – has an exciting sense of narrative, and is full of strongly drawn vignettes of life in the seventeenth century’, Jeremy Musson, Country Life
‘Worsley really excels. She has a rare gift for evoking how these ‘great houses’ functioned ... anyone who reads this book cannot fail to be impressed by Worsley’s sure sense of the texture of the past’, John Adamson, Literary Review
‘The foreground of most versions of Cavendish's life—his poetry, tutoring of young Charles II, civil war defeat in battle at Marston Moor, and subsequent exile to Antwerp—becomes the background in this charming picture of how Cavendish and his household experienced their lives. Worsley argues that this careful look at Cavendish's household shows a world transforming itself from medieval to recognizably modern during the course of his life. No library should be without this innovative volume’. Stuart Desmond, Library Journal
‘Wonderful material, so skilfully deployed ... an estimable historian with a fascinating story to tell. Through the character of William Cavendish, smitten by women, horses and architecture, we are offered a revelatory account of life inside the seventeenth-century aristocratic house ... Worsley, Chief Curator of the Historic Royal Palaces, is clearly in her element’. Jonathan Wright, The Tablet
‘A spirited portrait ... relayed with tremendous gusto by Lucy Worsley, chief curator of the Historic Royal Palaces, who obviously thrills to these historic times, sleuthing through piles of ancient papers and weaving their detail into a fast-paced narrative ... riveting and skilfully written biography’. Ed Peters, South China Morning Post
‘Worsley revels in the architecture, interior decoration, fashion and diet of the household’. David Honigmann, Financial Times
Worsley ‘has invented an intriguing new genre ... the great strength of this book, indeed, lies in the mass of details Worsley has drawn from a range of sources ... above all, you learn about that long-gone institution, the great noble household, which formed a complete social world and economy of its own ... This is one of the many worlds we have lost; it becomes visible and almost tangible again in Lucy Worsley’s book’. Noel Malcolm, The Sunday Telegraph
‘Worsley’s architectural and domestic history tells Cavendish’s story through his various sumptuous homes. From a vast array of sources – blueprints and design plans, inventories and recipe books, the notes of the family doctor and Cavendish’s own poetry – Worsley recreates intimate moments in the life of the household’. The New Yorker
‘Each chapter deals with the events of a particular day at a particular place ... Worsley’s description of the preparations for the arrival of Charles I and the masque that was to be the day’s entertainment is excellent, vividly depicting the extraordinary size and complexity of a nobleman’s household’. Judith Flanders, New York Times
‘I especially liked this for its detail and the wealth of research and archival detail that has allowed Worsley to paint such a complete picture of William Cavendish in the world of Restoration England’. Sue Baker, Personal Choice, Publishing News
‘Every detail of Cavendish's universe comes to life, from architect John Smithson's designs for his exquisite home to the job descriptions and diets of the building site's labourers ... vividly described’. Publishers Weekly