Customer Reviews
Readable, engaging, and insightful - By: Sophie, 13 Dec 2008 
A wonderfully comprehensive review of the period that includes areas that would normally be missedin traditional top-down approaches, such as the experience for ordinary soliders, & those groups at the political periphery.
At the same time, the style is very easy to read, & the material remains engaging through out.
The one flaw is that, at times, the narative of events becomes slightly obscured, which can become a little confusing, meaning that this is a very good book to explore why these events happened if you are already aware of what happened. A glossary of names, due to the number of individuals mentioned, at times several chapters after they are first introduced, would also be a welcome addition.
The people's war - By: G. J. Weeks, 24 Nov 2008 
An Australian has written the best book I have read on our civil war. She tells the story using the accounts & histories of people great & small involvedin the most devastating conflict our country had ever experienced. She is very even handed promoting the readers respect for aspects of both Charles & Cromwell, thgough I still conclude the thing the king did best was the way he faced death. One gets a real feel for the times & the horror of war. So much so I skipped some of the accounts of the military surgeons. There are limits to how much real blood & gore this reader can stomach.
It started with Montrose.... - By: Emerald Fox, 24 Sep 2008 I became interestedin the Civil War whilst planning across a trip to Scotland 3 years ago & coming across the book "Montrose - Cavalierin Mourning" - since then I have read other books about Montrose (James Graham) & these lead south to the Warin England. Reading Purkiss's book at the moment, 90% through... I would recommend it, one of those 'hard to put down' books & always eager to pick it up again.
As far as facts go, you have to use your own judgement. I intend to make a calendar on paper from 1640 to 1650 & begin to jot down when what event occurred & build up for myself a picture - & then perhaps write my own essay on The Civil War. I will certainly run through Purkiss's book again to help me fillin this calendar.
I started this book by reading the chapters about the battles, then about Charles I & then Cromwell, then starting from the beginning (and jumping the chapters I'd already read).
The English Civil War seems similar to the Chinese 'Cultural Revolution', a kind of mass madness - humans killing humans just for the fun of it - is there a worse or crueller animal?! Perhaps nature's way of saying the population is too large & pruning the numbers cleans up the gene pool, survival of the fittest?! Anyway, reading the book makes one appreciate livingin "today's world" (in Britain at least, they're still at itin places like Nigeria & Somalia) & that for food all yer need to do is to pop down to Sainsburys...!
Buy the book - if you don't like it, someone else will be happy to get it for Christmas ;)
A very readable narrative of interesting times - By: Heimola Mikko, 24 Sep 2008 This is a book aptly summarised by it's title. Buildup to the war is
adequately covered, as it should, but it ends with Charles' head being
chopped off his body. Those interestedin the interregnum or restoration
need look elsewhere.
Even though the book aims to give voice to the ordinary people usually
forgotten, this is hardly possible as the sources surviving are already
badly biased. Every individual who could or would leave a written legacy
was a member of the middle-to-upper classes, as the lengthy quotations show. The
author repeatedly states this as an inevitable shortcoming, & tries to
overcome it by including e.g. recorded statements overheardin pubs.
The methods employed by Purkiss are mostly those of traditional history,
with little explicit theorizing, although she sometimes draws parallels to
more modern cases. Although the book is thematically structured, she
manages to build a very coherent narrative. As far as popular history
goes, this is top class.
Eminently readable, entertaining and informative. - By: Carl Waring, 15 Mar 2008 I'm not really a fan of history books. A 'C'in GCSE 15 years ago was good enough for me & I haven't exactly been at the front of the queuein the bookshops to pick up the latest historical offerings. To be honest, I only picked this book upin my local library on a wet Tuesday lunchtime because the local shop had sold out of newspapers; I never expected to get so caught upin it.
The way Purkiss writes is superb: it's like having a super-informed friend explain something to youin a language that is somewhere between typical history book prose & an almost knowing informality (speaking of a contemporary play she writes "It was about love. It was about faith. It was about four hours longer than the audience was used to.")
Don't be fooled into thinking this is history-lite, though. At over 500 pages it is not for the uncommitted reader, but the compelling stories of ordinary folk coupled with the way they are told & the way they ebb & flow with the tide of the Civil War makes it a fascinating & gripping read. The library can have it's copy back: I'm off to buy the hardback.
