I read Alison Weir's book and found it immensely readable. However, she is very keen to state that things she would like to believe are truth are definite fact and things that she doesn't are just rumours.

For example she definitely believes that Edward II escaped and whilst there is some evidence, it can't acutally be proved that he did escape. I don't really see how she can state that that is what happened when it is a mystery.

I am currently reading Ian Mortimer's book on Roger Mortimer and really enjoying it. It is very well written and I am hoping it does not totally whitewash Roger as I think that whilst he had some very good qualities he was ruthless and ambitious.

I would also recommend 'Plantagenet England 1225-1360' by Michael Prestwich for a good overview of the period. It is more academic and quite long, but it is good for information on society in general and the politics of the time.

I'm not a fan of Alison Weir's work in general. There's a definite lack of evidence in her books, and her bias towards her favs is transparent. I enjoyed Mortimer's book much more.

I found very much to enjoy in Alison Weir's bio of Isabella, but as Anerje says, she does play favourites with her subjects. It annoyed me how many things she left out that she thought would reflect badly on Isabella. For example, saying that 3 of Hugh Despenser's daughters 'became nuns' is hardly honest, given that Isa forcibly veiled them 5 weeks after their father's execution. Or saying that Isa's income from Jan 1327 (which Weir has Ed III granting her, although he was only 14 - obviously she granted it to herself!) made her 'one of the great landowners of the realm' when in fact it was a third of the annual royal revenue and the highest income that anyone in England (kings excepted) received in the entire Middle Ages.

I really love Plantagenet England too. Extremely readable. thorough, scholarly but entertaining.