David Womersley is the Thomas Warton Professor of Literature at the University of Oxford. Among his interests are Jonathan Swift (he was the general editor of the CUP edition of Swift), Daniel Defoe and Edward Gibbon, whose Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire he edited for Penguin Classics.
The little volumes of the 'Penguin Monarchs' series will be a matchless collection when completed. Already they provide a first-rate history of England, its monarchy and the effects of power on character. I've relished Anne Curry on Henry V, Stephen Alford on Edward V, David Womersley on James II and Roger Knight's William IV - but really there is not a dud among them. -- Richard Davenport-Hines * Spectator *