Book excerpt: "Penguin Pocket Kings and Queens is essential for anyone wanting to check dates, facts or popular tales about international royalty from the earliest times to the present day. With kings, queens, tsars, emperors and pharaohs from all over the world, this is the ultimate one-stop guide to the royal figures who have influenced the modern age. This book includes: comprehensive ready reference listing of world monarchs from Assyria to Zambia; family trees of all British monarchs; and a glossary of monarch-related words and advice on pronouncing difficult names."--BOOK JACKET.