Reading progress update: I've read 38%.

3:01 pm 31 October 2015
The Rider of the White Horse - Rosemary Sutcliff 1066 and All That: A Memorable History of England - W.C. Sellar, R.J. Yeatman

Looking at my bookshelves, it's quite obvious which period of English history has held the most fascination for me. Novels and biographies about the Plantagenets, Tudors, and the Wars of the Roses are everywhere. But apart from a few key battles, Oliver Cromwell and his New Model Army, and the Roundheads and Royalists - 'right but repulsive and wrong but wromantic'*, my knowledge of the English Civil War is a bit more sketchy.

 

So I'm really enjoying learning a bit more the events which took place pretty much on my doorstep. I'm actually sitting with a map next to me so I can follow the journeys taken by Anne and Thomas Fairfax. And because the street names haven't changed in 380 years, I know exactly where the fighting happened. Streets where I used to spend a leisurely Saturday afternoon shopping with my girlfriends, once ran red with blood. 

 

 

* If you haven't read 1066 And All That, you should. Extremely funny, but for god's sake don't use it as a source if you're taking an exam in English History. 

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