A history of England through the lens of a Leicestershire village.

Not too bad, but could get very detailed. That said the TV series was excellent and this book fllls in the gaps left by that as it could not cover everything in the eight one hour shows. ( )

I would fully recommend reading this book if you want to get a handle on English history, or at least the history of a typical Midlands village. It is pleasantly biased towards the 'Dark Ages' and early medieval period (Wood's speciality) and skips over the 20th century in one short chapter - usually history books are the other way around. I understood all kinds of history for the first time - the Peasants Revolt, enclosure, emergence of non-conformists - all in an easy to read style. ( )

Written to go with TV series, and I haven't been able to see the series. More focused on political and religious developments than everyday life. A bit on frame knitters ( )

04 Jan 2011 - Waterstones

A clever telling of English history through the history of one village in Leicestershire, Kibworth, which handily has a lot of archaeological and documentary evidence associated with it, showing how it has been affected by the sweep of history. Great on the early times, and not as much speculation as I'd feared - but it skips rather after the 1600s, and I'd have loved a round-up of the "Big Dig" findings that inspired the TV series. Suffered from a lack of commas and general copy-editing, but good maps and illustrations and in general a good read. ( )