Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18212 in Books
• Published on: 2007-02-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Review
'Rich, vivid and passionate!a moving, lyrical and principled piece of writing!Purkiss has a gift for evocation!the battles of Edgehill and Newbury are thrillingly staged.' The Independent 'Diane Purkiss's study of the English civil war is a rich one. For it is here!that you begin to get close to what it would have been like to live through the nine momentous years from 1640 to 1649!it would be hard to imagine anything more irresistible than this rich layer cake of a book, crammed with the stories and the voices that make history human.' The Guardian 'Purkiss has an eye for the narrative vignette that can illuminate the age.' Sunday Times 'Her vivid descriptions of the key battles at Marston Moor and Naseby are shocking and terrifying in their graphic detail of the suffering inflicted by canon, musket and pike!"The English Civil War" is a substantial book, elegantly written, meticulous in its detail and scrupulous in the sympathetic attention it pays to the voices it records.' Literary Review 'Light in touch, though grounded in an enormous wealth of documentary material this "people's history" shows how England's men and women coped with quite extraordinary times.' The Scotsman 'Worthy and engaging, full of entertaining nuggests.' Dominic Sandbrook, Daily Telegraph

Guardian
'A seductive and gripping narrative that gives insight into
humanity and into life.'

Sunday Times
'Purkiss has an eye for the narrative vignette that can illuminate the age.'

Customer Reviews

A new slant on the Civil War
I think this is an excellent book and, unlike a lot of recent history, eminently readable. The insights it provides into what is already a much-written-about period are enlightening and often surprising. It is not a history of battles, nor is it my favourite account of the politics of the period (that has to be Christopher Hill's "The World Turned Upside Down"), but as an account of the effects of the period on the British peoples it breaks new ground in popular history. It is probably as well to have a little prior knowledge of the period to extract maximum pleasure from the book, but even the good old Pelican History can provide this ("England In The 17th Century" - Maurice Ashley)

A People's History
I'm shocked to see this book receive such a poor rating. It's one of the best history books I've ever read. The reader who complains about the coverage given to women is missing the point. This is, as the title says, a people's history - and people includes women and children, not just the men whose exploits are usually chronicled. There are any number of books about the generals and politicians, but Purkiss's mission is to describe what the war was like for those who lived through it, whether or not they were involved in the fighting or political power-struggles. Hence we get chapters on children, food, art, iconoclasm, the banning of Christmas etc - though she's also excellent on the well-known figures like Charles I, Cromwell and Milton. I found it a gripping read, superbly written and often very funny. This is her account of the latest fashionable play at Charles's court: "It was about love. It was about faith. It was about four hours longer than the audience was used to."

Eminently readable, entertaining and informative.
I'm not really a fan of history books. A 'C' in GCSE 15 years ago was good enough for me and I haven't exactly been at the front of the queue in the bookshops to pick up the latest historical offerings. To be honest, I only picked this book up in my local library on a wet Tuesday lunchtime because the local shop had sold out of newspapers; I never expected to get so caught up in it.

The way Purkiss writes is superb: it's like having a super-informed friend explain something to you in a language that is somewhere between typical history book prose and an almost knowing informality (speaking of a contemporary play she writes "It was about love. It was about faith. It was about four hours longer than the audience was used to.")

Don't be fooled into thinking this is history-lite, though. At over 500 pages it is not for the uncommitted reader, but the compelling stories of ordinary folk coupled with the way they are told and the way they ebb and flow with the tide of the Civil War makes it a fascinating and gripping read. The library can have it's copy back: I'm off to buy the hardback.