There is thought provoking analysis of all of the key issues of the reign: the loss of the French territories; relations with the Church; the British achievement and Magna Carta and civil war. Each chapter is composed of a timeline of events followed by an outline narrative. The concluding part of each chapter then offers an analysis of the various interpretations that historians have devised. Throughout it is engagingly argumentative. 

The book includes some record evidence material that has previously only been available in calendared collections of documents, access to which is generally difficult for the general reader and non-specialist student. In this study, John emerges as a more accomplished king than has generally been recognised. 

The Online Graduate Journal of Medieval Studies reviewed ‘“King John: An Underrated King” as being, 'without a doubt, an excellent introduction to political, social and religious aspects of twelfth and thirteenth century England.'