'Rich, vivid and passionate!a moving, lyrical and principled piece of writing!Purkiss has a gift for evocation!the battles of Edgehill and Newbury are thrillingly staged.' The Independent 'Diane Purkiss's study of the English civil war is a rich one. The consequences of ten years of bloody revolution were to stretch from the cities to the villages to the grand houses, form Ulster to East Anglia to the outer reaches of Cornwall.įirst published 2006 this edition with PS section 2007. The English Civil War builds a gripping narrative of the individuals involved and their motives, from those whose reputations were made on the back of this violent and brutal war, such as Oliver Cromwell and Lady Eleanor Davies, to witchfinders and revolutionaries and ultimately, the ordinary men who fought and the women who lived with tragedy, finding their political voice for the first time.

In an excitingly fresh approach to the period, Diane Purkiss tells the story of this critical era not just in terms of the battle of ideas, but as the histories of the people who conceived them. This compelling history, culminating in the execution of Charles I, brings to life the people who fought in it, died in it, and in doing so changed the history of the world forever. This is a remarkable popular history of the English Civil War, from the perspectives of those involved in this most significant turning point in British history. Print The English Civil War: A People's History

The english civil war diane purkiss