Game of Thrones tells the story of Britain better than most histories

A young pretender raises an army to take the throne. Having recently learnt of his father’s beheading, the adolescent — dashing and charismatic and descended from the old kings of the north — vows to avenge him. Despite his youth, he has already won in the field and commands the loyalty of many of the leading families of the realm; he is supported in this war by his mother, who has spirited away her two younger boys to safety. Pitted against them is the Queen, proud and strong-willed, and more of a man than anyone around her, battling for the inheritance of her sadistic young son.

This is the premise behind the HBO television show Game of Thrones, the fourth series of which begins on 7 April. Based on the George R.R. Martin heptalogy, A Song of Fire and Ice, and set on the island of Westeros, it has broken out of the fantasy genre to become one of the most popular shows of this, our golden age of television.