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Great Tales from English History: the Battle of the Boyne to DNA, 1690-1953: Battle of the Boyne to DNA v. 3 [Hardcover]

Robert Lacey
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
RRP: £14.99
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Book Description

5 Oct 2006

Your Country Needs You! Edward the Abdicator and Peace for our Time - the latest volume of GREAT TALES FROM ENGLISH HISTORY enters the twentieth century with a flourish. Starting in 1690, in the reign of William III and Queen Mary, this crackling collection of freshly researched stories recounts the modern history of England.

Robert Lacey's gift for marrying great events with extraordinary individuals illustrates familiar tales from new, often quirky and always entertaining angles. The origin of the Luddite name is explained; the mutiny on the BOUNTY is attributed to fruit; the showdown on Culloden Moor ends the Scottish challenge to the English throne and gives rise to the world's first national anthem. These centuries also see the passing of milestones in social history, from the championing of the Rights of Man to the long struggle for equal rights for women; but, perhaps most significantly, these tales also trace extraordinary advances in science and technology, right up to the revolution in genetics.

This is history with pace, punch and personality. Robert Lacey's pinpoint accuracy in research is matched by his unerring instinct for the stories behind the headlines of history.


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Frequently Bought Together

Great Tales from English History: the Battle of the Boyne to DNA, 1690-1953: Battle of the Boyne to DNA v. 3 + Great Tales From English History: Cheddar Man to DNA: A Treasury of True Stories of the Extraordinary People Who Made Britain Great + The Year 1000: An Englishman's Year
Price For All Three: £26.81

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Little, Brown (5 Oct 2006)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0316727172
  • ISBN-13: 978-0316727174
  • Product Dimensions: 15.2 x 22.1 x 4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 218,599 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Review

Great Tales: Cheddar Man to the Peasant's Revolt: 'It reads easily and deliciously, and deserves a wide audience. Lacey is a serious historian' David McLaurin, TABLET 'Beautifully written, full of things you didn't know, and well worth a read if you want a new view on stories you though you already understood' - LIVING HISTORY 'A great introduction to history and legend for children and adults who've forgotten' OBSERVER --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Book Description

The third volume of the dramatic story of England, from ancient times to modern, by the No. 1 bestselling author of THE YEAR 1000

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Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars A great tale for great reading 9 Jan 2005
Format:Hardcover
This is a delightful book. A book to read curled up in front of the fire on a cold winter's day. A lovely book to hold and weigh in your hands. But be warned. It is a book to ration - no more than one or two short chapters at a time - and it will have you ransacking your bookshelves to chase up more information or scouring your local library for more detailed works. Any book that kindles or reawakens a passion for English history is a treasure. And this book, along with the first volume in the series, does just that. Not only does Robert Lacey keep each tale sufficiently brief for his readers to keep track of the larger plot but, by cramming so much information into just a few paragraphs, he makes us feel we have a good grasp of what each topic is all about. Yet at the same time he leaves us asking for more. And that is where the list of references, especially the details of the latest websites, is particularly helpful. Like me, Lacey is not an academic and I cannot guarantee the quality of his scholarship (I thought the legend of Thomas More's private jail was now considered apocryphal). But the book is convincing as an honest attempt at telling the truth as the best of today's historians currently understand it. It is a book I can heartedly recommend.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Very entertaining 8 Nov 2006
Format:Hardcover
It is only after buying and reading this book that I realized that it is one of a series covering different time periods of English history. So my first comment is that this book can be read and enjoyed independently of the other volumes. In fact I found this book just the kind of bedtime reading I like, and I will be buying the other volumes in the near future. The book consists of 60 short stories, each 3-5 pages long, ranging from John Locke (1690), though Brunel (1843), to Crick and Watson (1953). As I read through the initial tales my first impression was that they were a little too concise and did not include sufficient context to appreciate fully the story being told. However as I approached the Spinning Jenny (1766) and Ned Ludd (1812) I realized what the problem was. My long forgotten school education had more or less jumped from the Romans and Viking straight into the 1800's, leaving a big gap of ignorance in the middle. Thus I found it far easier to situate the tales dating from 1760-70 in the context of my (admittedly still limited) knowledge of English history. Here is the strength of the book, and lets drop the "great" and employ the more useful "entertaining", it brings a bit of life to what many people (including myself) see as a rather dry and dusty subject. The tales can be read as nothing more than interesting snippets about the past. The style of writing is uncomplicated and light, yet each tale is rich and enjoyable. However the book also does a really good job in wetting the reader's appetite for more, and in this context the 20 pages of "bibliography and source notes" are a very welcome addition (the Web addresses are also appreciated).
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Victor HALL OF FAME TOP 10 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover
This is an enjoyable book, which is guaranteed to get people interested in history. Very much like Churchill's "History of the English Speaking Peoples", Lacey sets out to tell quirky and interesting tales from the history of this island race. Whereas Churchill tended to be a bit verbose and went on a bit, this book presents all the stories in short, easily digestible chunks. There is also a sense of humour in Lacey's writing, I was occasionally reminded of that other great history text "1066 and all that" in style, but with real historical facts.

After being turned off history at school by serious teachers obsessed with agricultural reform in the 16th century (yawn!!!), this book delivered exactly what makes history interesting. Battles, Kings, important dates and interesting people having interesting adventures. It's accurate, easily accessible and quite interesting. Not an authoritative history of these isles, just selected series of stories that interested the author. A perfect antidote to that in depth study of the influence of the seed drill on political reform of the 17th century I remember being bored to tears by in `proper' history lessons.

This is the third book of three. I can highly recommend the first two in the series, which set a high standard. However, this volume did not quite achieve the same heights in my eyes. It's as though the author feels a bit bored by it all now, and just wants to finish the job. There is a dashed off feel to many of the chapters, which seem to skim over the surface and don't get the same feeling of depth as in the first two books.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars A reasonable overview 7 Jun 2005
By Mrs. D. J. Smith VINE™ VOICE
Format:Hardcover
I enjoyed Lacey's first volume, which took us from Cheddar Man to The Peasants Revolt, and hoped that this second volume would be as entertaining. Lacey uses the same readable and anecdotal style, but perhaps it is because I am more familiar with late medieval and early modern history that I didn't enjoy this as much as the first volume. Events are not really studied in depth, which is not always helpful when events, and those of the Wars of the Roses in particular, are so complex. It didn't bode well when the Plantagenet family tree at the beginning of the book had the rose emblems the wrong way around! Not a bad starting point if your history is sketchy though!
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