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Product Description
Product Description
The village of Kibworth in Leicestershire lies at the very centre of England. It has a church, some pubs, the Grand Union Canal, a First World War Memorial - and many centuries of recorded history. In the thirteenth century the village was bought by William de Merton, who later founded Merton College, Oxford, with the result that documents covering 750 years of village history are lodged at the college.
Building on this unique archive, and enlisting the help of the current inhabitants of Kibworth, with a village-wide archeological dig, with the first complete DNA profile of an English village and with use of local materials like family memorabilia, Michael Wood tells the extraordinary story of one English community over fifteen centuries, from the moment that the Roman Emperor Honorius sent his famous letter in 410 advising the English to look to their own defences to the village as it is today.
The story of Kibworth is the story of England itself, a 'Who Do You Think You Are?' for the entire nation. It is the subject of a six-part BBC tv series to be shown in autumn 2010.
About the Author
Michael Wood was born and educated in Manchester. He was an open scholar in Modern History at Oriel College, Oxford, where he held a Bishop Fraser scholarship in Medieval History as a postgraduate. He has made a number of internationally successful tv series, including In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great, and four of his books have been UK non-fiction number one bestsellers. His highly acclaimed book of essays on early English history, In Search of England, was published by Penguin in 1999.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
69 of 69 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Michael Wood never disappoints. Once again his cocktail of popularist history with a scholarly twist works magic. If you are following the TV series on BBC4 (should be on BBC1) you will love the book. Yes, pictures help a lot but the book is much, much better. Most people would be surprised how little text you can actually get into an hour's TV, the detail is in the pages not on the screen. This is an excellent book which utilises all the modern techniques available to the archaeologist and the historian, from field-walking and metal detection to dendrochronology and geo-phys. But, one should never underestimate Wood's own scholarship, he is a dedicated, trained historian and a good one. In brief, the book follows the lives of ordinary families of the Leicestershire village of Kibworth from Roman and Romano-British, Anglo-Saxon, Danish, Norman, and so on, to the twentieth century. What shines through is the tenacity and vibrancy of the English peasantry, their successes and their failures, through famine, plague, war and heresy. Some familes, like the Polles, die off through lack of male issue, others, like the Coleman's are still to be found in the village today, direct descendents of those who ploughed the village fields 700 and more years ago. Yet, despite local particularism, what is seen in Kibworth is the same as can be seen in countless English villages, especially in the East Midlands, and in this sense the story of Kibworth is very much a microcosm of the story of England.
The only criticism one could make is that it does seem that once Wood gets past the Tudors he was under pressure to finish the book. The period 1700 - 2000 is in some ways scantily covered compared to earlier periods and, yet, this latter period has comparatively far more historical records available for study. I am sure, for example, that much more could be said about the 40 brave men who gave up their lives during the Great War of 1914-18 than is included in the book. Indeed, Wood himself admits that 19th/20th century Kibworth could produce a book in its own right. Maybe he will write it. Meantime, this present work is highly recommended.
The only criticism one could make is that it does seem that once Wood gets past the Tudors he was under pressure to finish the book. The period 1700 - 2000 is in some ways scantily covered compared to earlier periods and, yet, this latter period has comparatively far more historical records available for study. I am sure, for example, that much more could be said about the 40 brave men who gave up their lives during the Great War of 1914-18 than is included in the book. Indeed, Wood himself admits that 19th/20th century Kibworth could produce a book in its own right. Maybe he will write it. Meantime, this present work is highly recommended.
83 of 85 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Having lived alongside the production of the BBC TV series with Michael Wood and his team, I was very apprehensive that the accompanying book could not paint the same picture. So much has been filmed in the 15 months, that the team have been putting together the TV production, that I felt the book would miss some of the intimacy of the interviews with local residents. With my local knowledge of the area, I can easily imagine the views and buildings described by Michael, but readers who do not know the area need not worry because Michael's writing style is as evocative as his visual presentation. And those intimate interviews have been transformed into stories through the ages of the three communities that make up the original parish of Kibworth - Kibworth Harcourt, Kibworth Beauchamp and Smeeton Westerby.
Michael has brought to life, in the written word, the full panoply of history of this small community in south Leicestershire through almost 2,000 years of English history. Of course, there are a few leaps of faith where a couple of facts have been joined up without perhaps having all the intervening pieces, but Michael admits this sometimes is necessary to cover the broader picture.
I thoroughly recommend this book which gives an enormous amount of factual detail intermingled with the thread of English history and how national, and even international, events had their effect on this small community. This is not a stuffy academic book, but a page turner as Michael guides the reader through the periods of history that made England what it is today.
There are some black and white photographs and some maps to help the reader visualise many of the places and characters that make up Kibworth's history - some of the characters became national figures as well.
Michael has brought to life, in the written word, the full panoply of history of this small community in south Leicestershire through almost 2,000 years of English history. Of course, there are a few leaps of faith where a couple of facts have been joined up without perhaps having all the intervening pieces, but Michael admits this sometimes is necessary to cover the broader picture.
I thoroughly recommend this book which gives an enormous amount of factual detail intermingled with the thread of English history and how national, and even international, events had their effect on this small community. This is not a stuffy academic book, but a page turner as Michael guides the reader through the periods of history that made England what it is today.
There are some black and white photographs and some maps to help the reader visualise many of the places and characters that make up Kibworth's history - some of the characters became national figures as well.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Michael Wood is nothing short of a national treasure. While the accompanying television series was excellent, this book is if anything even better. I am particularly grateful he put as much emphasis on Kibworth in the Dark Ages as he did: absolutely fascinating stuff, told with much verve and panache.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
History made very readable
First off, I must confess to being a great Michael Wood fan and to having enjoyed every one of his books and TV programmes. Read more
Published 4 months ago by R Howey
Local history at its best
Seen the BBC TV series - then read the book. Not only does it deal with the history of Kibworth - or to be precise the 'Kibworths', as there are two adjacent villages of similar... Read more
Published 6 months ago by N. Whitsun-Jones
book review
This is one of the most readable,yet thoroughly researched and historically reliable accounts of England through the developing stages in the life of an english village at the... Read more
Published 10 months ago by ernest stanford
A view from the village
Writing history must be a bit of a nightmare. If you call your book "The" history of England people will complain that there is no one story. Read more
Published 12 months ago by SCM
Making local history fit the national picture but biased towards...
This is an extremely good read and takes the reader on a journey from the Iron Age through to Modern day but focused through the prism of the Leicestershire village of Kibworth. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Ian Thumwood
a magnificent tour de force of English history
I always take a little longer to read non-fiction - just the nature of the beast.
Michael Wood is a long-standing favorite of mine - in tandem with his television... Read more
Michael Wood is a long-standing favorite of mine - in tandem with his television... Read more
Published 14 months ago by G. Huntman
Story of England
An excellent companion to the DVD of the same name as in includes quite a lot of extra information. As always Michael Wood is both informative and easy to read. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Histbuf
the story of England, by Michael Wood
The book was a present for him! Thoroughly enjoyed dispite having only just seen the series of the same name. Unput downable!!!
Published 16 months ago by methecat&him
I can't tell
Michael Wood's books have always been thought-provoking and well-written in the past, and I fully expected this one to be also. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Jonathan A. Hayes
perfect present
Excellent book - top present for a fan of the show. Well received and actually looks likely to be a non-fiction book opened after Christmas day!
Published 17 months ago by Howard Kay
Listmania!
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