Category: British History

I love to read popular histories by authors such as David McCullough, Candice Millard, Stacy Schiff and Roger Crowley. I was hoping that the “The Glorious Revolution” would be cut from the same mold. I was persuaded by the back cover of the paperback edition, which claims the book is, “A thrilling narrative account of…

My all-time favorite play is “A Man For All Seasons,” Robert Bolt’s 1960 awarding-winning performance about the life and times of Sir Thomas More. I picked up this 1998 biography of More by the novelist Peter Ackroyd hoping to learn more about the main character, his beliefs, and his motivations. I was particularly intrigued because…

Sir Thomas More, canonized by the Catholic Church in 1935, was famously known as “A Man For All Seasons,” a brilliant, noble, pious, well-educated, devoted man and incorruptible defender of the crown and faith; he laid down his life in 1535 rather than sacrifice his religious beliefs. More’s life and death has inspired millions down…

I was really excited to read this book. I found it in a box at a library book sale and was immediately captivated by its unique premise as captured in its subtitle: “The Remarkable British Upheaval That Inspired America’s Founding Fathers.” I have read dozens of books and biographies about the American Revolution over the…

Nobody writes about early English history better than Alison Weir. Her book “The Six Wives of Henry the Eighth” (1991) is one of my all-time favorites. I picked up “Eleanor of Aquitaine” (1999) for the simple reason it was written by Alison Weir. I knew next to nothing about Eleanor before reading this book, not…

Alison Weir’s “The Wars of the Roses” (1995) offers an absorbing and detailed narrative of the dynastic struggles that engulfed England in the fifteenth century. These conflicts – known more accurately to contemporaries as the “Cousins’ Wars” – fought between the rival houses of Lancaster and York, arose from a crisis of succession that had…