Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I am puzzled by the animosity displayed in some of the more condemnatory reviews of this book. Lack of footnotes, maps, genealogical charts, kings' lists? They couldn't detect these things before they read the book? The author evidently didn't intend this to be a weighty, scholarly tome, rather a readable, quite enjoyable survey of several thousand years of English history. If this was his intent, he was quite successful. He kept the narrative going quite smoothly without leaving any significant gaps. Actually, his technique of interspersing chapters on the doings of kings and noblemen with chapters on the lives of ordinary folk, kept the story from becoming ponderous, as is the work of so many other writers. Perhaps he does sometimes draw firm conclusions in places where scholars argue otherwise, or where the jury is still out. Frankly, I don't care. I'm not looking for rock-solid detail, backed by endless footnotes and cross-references. If I were, I'd turn elsewhere. Instead, I was interested in finding a coherent narrative that would help knit together the bits and pieces of English history of which I had already read. "Foundation" is that narrative. I'm looking forward to his work on the Tudors.