"My model for this was the four-volume history of the Plantagenets that Thomas B Costain wrote in the 50s. It's old‑fashioned history: he's not interested in analysing socioeconomic trends or cultural shifts so much as the wars and the assignations and the murders and the plots and the betrayals, all the juicy stuff. Costain did a wonderful job on the Plantagenets so I tried to do that for the Targaryens." George R. R. Martin, "When I began Game of Thrones I thought it might be a short story" George R. R. Martin interviewed by Alison Flood. The Guardian,
10 November 2018. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
