Product Description

The Black Death remains the greatest disaster to befall humanity, killing about half the population of the planet in the 14th century. John Hatcher recreates everyday medieval life in a parish in Suffolk, from which an exceptional number of documents survive. This enables us to view events through the eyes of its residents, revealing in unique detail what it was like to live and die in these terrifying times. With scrupulous attention to historical accuracy, John Hatcher describes what the parishioners experienced, what they knew and what they believed. His narrative is peopled with characters developed from the villagers named in the actual town records and a series of dramatic scenes portray how contemporaries must have experienced the momentous events.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18968 in Books
• Published on: 2009-07-09
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Review
"a gripping read -- part historical inquiry, part novel" (INDEPENDENT )

"This totally absorbing book presents the best account ever written about the worst event to have ever befallen the British Isles" (Simon Winchester )

"The author is praised as a masterly social historian and the book as colourful as an episode of Midsomer Murders" (FINANCIAL TIMES )

"Conveys with great effectiveness the intensity of medieval English devotions and their deep preoccupation with the business of dying. Reading this book I was reminded time and again of the Tibetan Book of the Dead" (Will Self EVENING STANDARD )

"John Hatcher, a distinguished economic historian, sets out to attempt something new: the describe the plague in terms of one of these hard-hit communities... more than most of the purely historical accounts have given us" (LITERARY REVIEW )

'the sense of creeping doom, panic and rampant superstition is conveyed with a novelist's skill' (GUARDIAN )

'A compelling tale of ordinary people faced with a horror beyond imagining' (SUNDAY BUSINESS POST )

About the Author
John Hatcher is Professor of Economic and Social History and Chairman of the History Faculty at Cambridge University. He has taught the subject of the Black Death for twenty years and is the author of eight books on medieval history. He appeared in the Channel 4 series THE SEVEN AGES OF BRITAIN and advised on Discovery Channel series BLOODY BRITAIN, as well as a Channel 4 documentary on the Peasants' Revolt with Tony Robinson. He lives in Cambridge.

Customer Reviews

An exellent and informative read.
This well researched and fascinating account of the "Black Death" had me gripped. The mixture of fact and fiction worked well. The characters were entirely believable and the sense of place was strong. The priest caring for the sufferers was sympathetically portrayed and the importance of religion emphasized. I knew the effects of the shortage of workers following the plague, but probably had not realised what a hold the feudal system had on the poor. I had not previously read much about this time and it was brought to life with great detail and without sentimentality.

Nearly brilliant
Let me say straight away that I thoroughly enjoyed both the book and the scholarship behind it, and would recommend it highly. My criticisms will, therefore, seem like nit-picking, and they probably are just that.

I read this just after finishing reading Benedict Gummer's "The Scourging Angel", because I wanted to put some human detail onto the story that Gummer's immense tome examines. I like the style that Hatcher has employed; I like being able to see the events unfold through the medium of real people: empathy is a vital part of the historian's armoury, but very difficult to deploy accurately.

I'm just not sure whether Hatcher succeeds totally. We are introduced to many of the inhabitants of Walsham, but I don't think that, in the end, we are exposed totally to their feelings. If it is to work, the docu-drama method needs to be developed fully and I get the impression that, at times, Hatcher baulked at reflecting the hideously harrowing nature of the events of those dreadful months for the people who lived and died. Even the central character, the priest, is not allowed fully to express his thoughts, either to the people of the time or to us, his observers.

By comparison, Philip Ziegler, in one chapter of his "The Black Death" (nearly 40 years ago now), got to grips with the feelings and emotions of a typical set of villagers. I was hoping Hatcher would match that, and for me, he didn't. Despite his achieving a beautifully-detailed picture of the period, I was left wanting more depth.

As for the nit-picking, I wish his proof-readers would have picked up his misuse of "less" when he meant "fewer", on numerous occasions. And I also wish editors and publishers would realise that they don't HAVE to use the expression "The Black Death" to describe these events. It is not a matter of political correctness gone mad: that expression dates to the early 19th Century at the earliest and is thus singularly inappropriate for a book that is attempting to see events through the eyes of people living at the time.

Four stars or five? Does it matter? It's well worth the reading.

A fictional documentary
Based on manorial records and accounts from elsewhere, this book gives a vivid picture of the impact of the Black Death in the village. The author lists his sources, but these are mainly secondary, rather than the primary texts.