Product Description

With a narrative that grips the reader like a detective story, Antonia Fraser brings the characters and events of the Gunpowder Plot to life. Dramatically recreating the conditions and motives that surrounded the fateful night of 5 November 1605, she unravels the tangled web of religion and politics that spawned the plot. 'Told with impressive scholarship and panache...The result is a narrative that is clear, balanced, and builds to its denouement with a sense of pace and tension worthy of a John le Carre novel' John Adamson, Sunday Telegraph

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13173 in Books
• Published on: 2002-11-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

Review
Press release & copy of THE GUNPOWDER PLOT sent to usual paperback mailing list AND a special list created for this title. Mailing was sent in time to tie in with Bonfire Night. Special mailing list included history, catholic and specialist publications, as well as selected regional press including publications covering Lewes region etc. Press release was also sent to regional radio stations offering competition copies as author is not available for interview. The following regional radio stations will be holding competitions on/around 5th November 2002.BBC Radio Cambridgeshire (Book of the Week 3/11)BBCRadio EssexBBC Radio NewcastleBBC Radio WM Coventry & WarwickshireBBC Radio MerseysideBBC Radio SolentBBC Midlands Late ShowBBC Radio KentBBC Radio GM

About the Author
Antonia Fraser is the author of many widely acclaimed historical works including the biographies, CROMWELL: OUR CHIEF OF MEN, KING CHARLES II and THE GUNPOWDER PLOT (CWA Non-Fiction Gold Dagger; St Louis Literary Award). She has written five highly praised books which focus on women in history, THE WEAKER VESSEL: WOMEN'S LOT IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND (Wolfson Award for History, 1984), THE WARRIOR QUEENS: BOADICEAS CHARIOT, THE SIX WIVES OF HENRY VIII, MARIE ANTOINETTE: THE JOURNEY (Franco-British Literary Prize 2001), which was made into a film by Sofia Coppola in 2006 and now most recently LOVE AND LOUIS XIV: THE WOMEN IN THE LIFE OF THE SUN KING. Antonia Fraser was made CBE in 1999, and awarded the Norton Medlicott Medal by the Historical Association in 2000. She lives in London and is currently working on a biography of Queen Elizabeth I. She was married to Harold Pinter who died on Christmas Eve 2008 and has eighteen grandchildren.

Customer Reviews

Superb Narrative of the Powder Treason
For those among you who have read other historical narratives by Antonia Fraser you will know that her depth of research and story telling skills are beyond reproach. And so it is with this book.

The book outlines not only the details of the conspiracy itself but also sets the scene by explaining the very real persecution that catholics were exposed to in the last years of Elizabeth's reign and how they hoped, and indeed believed, that they would achieve toleration once James was securely on the English throne.

One aspect of the book which I found particulary fascinating was in respect of how little things have changed over the last four hundred years. We still have politicians who are prepared to make all kinds of promises before they gain power which they have no intention of actually keeping. We also have politicians who have no qualms about lying to us about the real dangers posed by our so called enemies in order that they can implement policies which are beneficial to themselves. And, of course, even in the twenty first century we still have religious extremists who are prepared to bomb London in order to further their cause, though not thankfully those with catholic sympathies anymore.

As we would expect from a historical writer who has written so extensively about female historical characters she places much emphasis on the women who are connected to the powder treason, most notably Anne and Eliza Vaux. She also betrays her catholic sympathies, not so much by supporting the conspirators which she doesn't, but by her very sympathetic portrayal of the Jesuits and lay men who were part of the story, though not of the conspiracy.

In summary, I would highly recommend this book not only because it is a very good read but also because in many important respects many aspects of the narrative are still highly relevant today.

Balanced and well-written account of the Gunpowder plot
I don't want to repeat all the many reviews already on here, but would like to add that there is a detectable emotional bias on the side of Fraser for the catholics. That doesn't detract from the book in any way (and could we ever elide our own emotions, opinions, bias' from any narrative?) but instead does add an interesting contemporary layer to her story. At the end, after the conspiracy has been discovered, this emotionalism becomes more obvious in the stories of the torture and execution of the conspirators (some of whom, arguably, were not actually involved). Fraser ends by not coming out on the side of the conspirators, but instead evoking the pity that such 'noble' men were forced into such ignoble deeeds: an interesting view, perhaps, given our own more recent experiences of terrorism in London and other places? A worthy book, and well-worth a read, both for its historical story-telling and its more modern narrative sub-text.

A book of fact that reads like good fiction
Antonia Fraser has the gift of presenting facts and documents from history in beautiful, engaging prose that you just want to keep on reading. The Gunpowder Plot was the first book by Ms Fraser that I read and I loved the thrill and the suspense which she weaves into her narrative. I felt as if I was reading a fast-paced, intriguing detective story rather than a book of fact - and though I knew from the start that the Plot will not succeed, Ms Fraser's style is so absorbing that you'll find youself turning the pages with excitement as you glimpse into the early 17th century religious turmoil of England. Most people will probably have heard of the Gunpowder Plot but won't really know about the forces that shaped it, or the outcome that it brought for England. With The Gunpowder Plot you will discover so many interesting facts about the Plot that you never knew, for example why celebrating Guy Fawkes Day in the USA is such a bizarre contradiction. I learnt a lot while reading this book and thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it.