A History of Britain - Volume 1: At the Edge of the World? 3000 BC-AD 1603
Simon Schama
Change - sometimes gentle and subtle, sometimes shocking and violent - is the dynamic of Simon Schama's unapologetically personal and grippingly written history of Britain, especially the changes that wash over custom and habit, transforming our loyalties.
What makes or breaks a nation? To whom do we give our allegiance and why? And where do the boundaries of our community lie - in our hearth and home, our village or city, tribe or faith? What is Britain - one country or many? Has British history unfolded 'at the edge of the world' or right at the heart of it?
Schama delivers these themes in a form that is at once traditional and excitingly fresh. The great and the wicked are here - Becket and Thomas Cromwell, Robert the Bruce and Anne Boleyn - but so are countless more ordinary lives: an Irish monk waiting for the plague to kill him in his cell at Kilkenny; a small boy running through the streets of London to catch a glimpse of Elizabeth I.
The first in a series, this volume paints a rich and vivid portrait of the life of the British people and their nation.
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About Simon Schama
Reviews for A History of Britain - Volume 1: At the Edge of the World? 3000 BC-AD 1603
Independent
He remains a master storyteller, admirably and sceptically well read in current revisionist histories, and a wonderful guide to a new history of Britain.
The Times
A History of Britain, its text supplemented by wonderful illustrations, affords the rare joy of witnessing a scholar at the peak of his powers convincing the reader that he has a cracking good tale to tell and that he is loving every minute of the telling.
Literary Review
Simon Schama's A History of Britain is far more than the book of the TV series... The book is far richer and fuller, covering a huge span so economically that there is room for plenty of arresting detail... It is the sort of vivid history that keeps you awake.
Daily Mail
Remarkably vivid pictures... A decade on, Schama's study remains a terrific read.
Paul Lay
History Today
A bravura performance by the Lord Macaulay of our day.
David Cannadine
The Observer
Schama has a masterly ability to conjure up character and vivify conflict.
Ben Rogers
Financial Times
Popular history at its finest.
Express on Sunday