After nearly two months and four library renewals I have finally read Christopher Lee’s six hundred page book on British history from the Romans to the death of Queen Victoria. And here’s what I think of it.
The book contains many extracts from Sir Winston Churchill’s “A history of the English speaking peoples”. It gives an overview of the English monarchs(post 1066), along significant people and events throughout the last two thousand years of the UK. These events and personalities all add up to Britain, its culture and society that we see today.
As expected, lesser known parts of British history were given less coverage than usual, especially the post Roman Anglo Saxon kingdoms, it was the ‘Dark Ages’ after all. Without going into too much detail, it tells you the origin of some of our institutions and certain words. Did you know that ‘Parliament’ got its name from the French word ‘parler’ to speak. It always been a place to ‘parley’ or to speak. Elsewhere I was interested in the rule of the some of the lesser known medieval monarchs such as Henry I and Henry III.
In brief, its a very readable book and the chapters are broken down in ten to fifteen page chunks. Despite the intimidating thickness I would recommend this book if you are in any way interested in British history
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