Edward the Confessor (Penguin Monarchs)

Nov 8, 2024 1:45 AM

Author:David Woodman

Edward the Confessor, the last great king of Anglo-Saxon England, canonized nearly 100 years after his death, is in part a figure of myths created in the late middle ages.

In this revealing portrait of England's royal saint, David Woodman traces the course of Edward's twenty-four-year-long reign through the lens of contemporary sources, from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the Vita Ædwardi Regis to the Bayeux Tapestry, to separate myth from history and uncover the complex politics of his life. He shows Edward to be a shrewd politician who, having endured a long period of exile from England in his youth, ascended the throne in 1042 and came to control a highly sophisticated and powerful administration.

The twists and turns of Edward's reign are generally seen as a prelude to the Norman Conquest in 1066. Woodman explains clearly how events unfolded and personalities interacted but, unlike many, he shows a capable and impressive king at the centre of them.

Reviews

David Woodman charts a shrewd course through the plentiful and often contradictory narrative sources for Edward the Confessor's reign. His book is particularly admirable for its recognition that, unusually for an English monarch, Edward proved still more influential dead than alive.

—— Professor George Garnett

This immersive biography, by the author of the Costa-shortlisted The Story of Alice, had me hooked... published in a sumptuous package, with illustrations throughout.

—— The Bookseller, Editor’s Choice

Clever and witty, packed with fiercely academic research and erudite analysis, but written in featherlight, elegant prose.

—— Natalie Haynes

The Turning Point...builds incrementally towards Bleak House...[and] makes for a very satisfying finale... Robert Douglas-Fairhurst has taken pains of his own and this wonderfully entertaining book is the result.

—— Anthony Quinn , Observer

Douglas-Fairhurst is a shrewd, amusing and original guide... [he] gives you fascinating facts... [and] a brisk and brilliant analysis of Bleak House.

—— Laura Freeman , The Times

[The Turning Point] is beautifully written and packed with wonders and insight and I shall definitely be rereading it before the year is out. Moreover, by the author's holding the magnifying glass aloft and allowing the sun to focus on one spot, 1851, the leaf catches flame.

—— A N Wilson , Oldie

[The Turning Point] hums with the intellectual life of the day.

—— Rose Shepherd , Saga Magazine

Taking his cue from that novel [Bleak House], Douglas-Fairhurst uses a fascinating range of interconnected sources, side-plots and telling details to dramatise the complex social and imaginative web out of which it came...He gives us history not as grand narrative or teleology but as total immersion and multiplicity. As such, Douglas-Fairhurst invites us to feel what it felt like to be Dickens in 1851.

—— Lucasta Miller , Financial Times

A fascinating biography that ultimately brings fresh insight to the life of Charles Dickens and his work as a novelist.

—— Tom Williams , Spectator

Sparklingly informative

—— Guardian

The Turning Point is a perceptive and enjoyable account of how deeply enmeshed Dickens's art was with the shifting cultural landscape of mid-Victorian England; it illustrates why he was the emblematic novelist of the age.

—— Tomiwa Owolade , Prospect

Douglas-Fairhurst's... immersive book echoes the experimental form of the novel, blending stories, sub-plots and telling details to bring to life a complex moment in the life of a city and one of its greatest writers.

—— Carl Wilkinson , Financial Times, *Books of the Year*

Robert Douglas-Fairhurst pulls off an extraordinary trick of immersive history, taking a single year in Charles Dickens's life, 1851, and placing the personal story of one of the most extraordinary writers ever to have lived within his social and cultural context

—— Lucasta Miller , Spectator, *Books of the Year*

It's amazing how eruditely Robert Douglas-Fairhurst manages to illuminate our history through a microscopic focus on one brief period.

—— Alan Johnson , New Statesman, *Books of the Year*

It is hard to imagine a better book on Dickens.

—— New Statesman (BECOMING DICKENS)

A startling and exciting writer.

—— Spectator (THE STORY OF ALICE)

In a year of striking biographies, the most striking of all - due to its erudition, empathy and freshness of approach - is Douglas-Fairhurst's Becoming Dickens.

—— TLS (BECOMING DICKENS)

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