The Story of England

This is a review of the original hardback edition. There are seventeen chapters sandwiched between an introduction and an epilogue. The book's halfway point, as with the accompanying TV series, is the thirteenth century, so Wood devotes much welcome time to the Dark Age, Anglo-Saxon, and medieval periods. There are thirty-nine plates and five maps.All the plates are monochrome, so we do not get fully to appreciate the "golden ironstone" of St Wilfrid's church; the wide blue skies above the Gartree; or the colourful content of the medieval records. Alas, there is no sight in Wood's volume of Harry the Hayward's omen book - "the page for January has dark hooded figures spewing poisoned arrows"; there is no reproduction of the "two wonderful painted plans of 1609 and 1635 which depict all the village houses"; and none of the "beautiful map ... of the open fields of Harcourt", of which we catch glimpses in the TV series. Instead, the maps that are provided are poor, with many of the places mentioned in the text situated off the edges.In his introduction Wood argues that ostensibly anywhere in England could have been chosen for his experiment of focussing on the history of one settlement to tell the story of a nation, but the richness of the Merton College documents allied to an industrial and not just agricultural past led to Wood's choice of Kibworth in Leicestershire. As Wood states in further support of his choice, as well as being geographically central, Kibworth nevertheless also lies "on a linguistic and cultural divide."It is arguable whether Wood is right to state that, "The details of the [national] story will be different in each place, but it is the same story", but the argument would be more over what's missing from the Kibworth story rather than what it is in it. For instance, there was no local landowning abbey, so immediately there is a difference from the story of most other settlements in England. Moreover, Kibworth is close to Bosworth and Lutterworth, it experienced late enclosure of its open fields, and - perhaps, most importantly - it is so far from the sea. All of these (and more) make the juxtaposition of the Kibworth story and the English story problematical.Nevertheless, Wood writes how "the local history of every county, parish and village has been more intensely cultivated here than anywhere in the world: in the belief that every place is its own version of the grand narrative, that every place is also part of the national story." He demonstrates this in the very first five pages of his own `grand narrative', walking to, through, and out of Kibworth, noting with his quick eye everything from 4000-year-old burial sites to the Kibworth Fish Bar and the Moka Coffee Shop, with all periods between.As usual, the book of the TV series tells us so much more. For instance, he remarks that "no document has survived to tell us about the history of Mercian Kibworth", yet this does not stop him imaginatively constructing over several pages a guess at its creation and form. Equally, he touches on the Viking burial at nearby Repton over the border in Derbyshire. Wood's belief that the forging of the English character lies in such early times is manifested in his conclusion that, "The first three decades [of the tenth] century are among the most dramatic and action-packed in British history, out of which would appear a new social and political landscape" - of hundreds and shires, and of open fields - and where "class divisions were already strongly marked." It's a shame that Wood did not also set up a DNA project.Wood's researches have uncovered some vitally important new information for the nation's story. For instance, "As a microcosm of the great pestilence, the story of Kibworth Harcourt in particular puts this great event in the sharpest focus: ... the death toll [of a massive seventy percent] is unsurpassed in any court roll so far examined in Britain for the Black Death." He also finds "perhaps, remarkably, the earliest English letter by an English peasant to survive."Wood's story is very much a history from the point of view of `the ordinary man and woman' and how national events impinged on their lives, whether it be the Barons' Revolt or canal mania, Viking incursions or the enclosure of common fields. For example, Wood takes us through the Reformation using the wills of the villagers, and uses Sir Frederick Eden's 1797 survey of the poor for later times. In his epilogue, he points out how "one can always generalize about history; one can always tell it through the stories of kings and queens. But it is always by particularizing, by looking at it from the point of view of the ordinary people, that we begin to see the gradual development of society over time."Wood provides over nine pages of suggestions for further reading. The index is good but not without problems. For example, Medbourne is mentioned correctly on four pages, incorrectly on one, and missed out altogether on two more. And it is the fear that Wood has been poorly served by his publisher that concludes my review. The book is a very good read, indeed worthy of many re-readings, and Wood is to be congratulated on the result of so much hard work delving into the archives and traipsing around the landscape, not that he would have found either task taxing! But if only the publisher had provided the colourful plates that Wood's colourful story demands; better maps; and a better cover - after only the first read of Wood's book, the lettering on the jacket is already half-disappeared.

I have two suggestions regarding the content: (1) a glossary explaining the many (50+) words which I think are unfamiliar to most readers (including me), and (2) more maps, showing the area in various historical periods and marking ALL the features mentioned in the text! Given both of those and sharp printing on good paper, I would gladly have paid twice the price. But after Michael Wood's most interesting TV series, the book came as a disappointment.

I'd missed the series on TV when it was first shown in 2010, but caught it this time around, and being very interested in Leicestershire Local History was fascinated by it. I bought the book for reference and wasn't disappointed at all.

Michael Wood is, by a very long chalk, the best television historian: none of those ghastly "historical recreations" by bored looking actors in poor costumes but a serious look at the subject characterised by high communication skills. This was a brilliant television series which should be a model for looking at history in detail by focussing on a specific location: this book is a fitting follow-up - and much better for being a book rather than in some electronic form!

Very 'easy to read' book that does just what the introduction says. I may be a bit biased but I particularly wanted this book because I knew it made quite a few references to my forebears. I was a little disappointed that most of the references were repeats that said very much the same thing but nevertheless, it covered a few hundred years that were full of very interesting references, and will definitely be of much use to me. Yes....all in all, it's a very good, simple to understand the history of one small area of Liecestershire.It is a book I will be very happy to keep hold of. It all started as a history quest that was the subject for a television programme. The programme was first class, and this book is an ideal way to follow it up. I have no doubt that the book title applies to just about the whole of England.