The Great Fire of London: In That Apocalyptic Year, 1666

The Great Fire of London: In That Apocalyptic Year, 1666

by NeilHanson (Author)

Synopsis

A brilliantly compelling portrayal of the five-day inferno that torched London. Following on his tremendously successful book, Custom of the Sea , Neil Hanson presents a new and thrilling narrative of the pivotal event that destroyed one of the world's great capital cities. The Great Fire of London depicts the heartfelt and inspiring human dramas that unfolded, drawing on firsthand accounts of aristocrats, tradesmen, and servants. It reveals the stories of many compelling figures, including diarist Samuel Pepys, who saw the early hours of the fire from the Tower of London, as well as Charles II and his brother, who helped the commoners thwart the flames. In an era when structures were built of wood with thatched roofs, before organized fire departments and insurance, the Great London Fire left in its aftermath a devastated population of homeless, poverty-stricken people who nevertheless found the strength and courage to rebuild their city from ashes.

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More Information

Format: Illustrated
Pages: 320
Edition: Illustrated
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Published: 31 Aug 2005

ISBN 10: 0471218227
ISBN 13: 9780471218227

Media Reviews
Popular narrative history at its best, well researched, imaginatively and dramatically written... The author marshals his story and his mass of contemporary quotation with great skill. (Times Literary Supplement) Hanson's book sifts through the ashes and comes up with some intriguing theories. (Daily Mail) The Best Depiction of the Great Fire seen to date... He manages to describe not only the atmosphere of the event itself, but also the experience of living in seventeenth century Britain. (Soho Independent) Neil Hanson's descriptions of the inferno are like CNN reports from Kosovo. (Camden New Journal) Blends high--class original research with a pacy narrative style that mimics fiction... Horrific subjects have served this man well and he has a knack for plugging into the dark themes that run like molten rivers beneath our social veneer. (New Zealand Herald) Extraordinary images abound: molten lead pours off St Paul's cathedral and runs silver in the streets; bodies burn six feet under in their graves. (New Zealand Listener) It's not the technical data which makes the book so riveting though. It's the flair with which Hanson invests his account with qualities usually reserved for novels -- narrative drive, persuasive character sketches, vivid scene stealing. (Sunday Star Times) (New Zealand) A horror story, well--researched and very well told, which will make you rethink your ideas on desirable old villas and tightly packed terraced suburbs. (Evening Post) (Auckland) ...when one reads Neil Hanson's meticulously researched, utterly fascinating new account, ...uncanny parallels between the two September events suddenly ...appear... (The New York Times Book Review, September 22, 2002)
Author Bio
NEIL HANSON is the author of The Custom of the Sea (Wiley) and thirty other books under his own name and a variety of pen names. He lives in West Yorkshire, England.