I've never kept up with British monarchs and only vaguely knew who ruled a handful of time periods in reference to events in the rest of the world. Forget who was the III or a V. This small book, a handbook if you will, is a guide to all the reigning royals from Egbert in 802 to Elizabeth II in the present. The synoposes for each ruler weaves in just enough of family drama to know why the succession skipped a sibling or went to an uncle, but also enough external political relations to follow Britain from battles between the English and the Danes, the "two races" on the island, to the power of the German House of Hanover culminating with Victoria. As someone relatively clueless about royal families beyond the general backstabbing and blood clotting issues, this was an absorbing, contextual read. ( )

Useful pamphlet becvause it includes the Saxon kings of Wessex not often listed in popular histories. It goes from the Saxons to the present. ( )