Gunpowder Plots

Oct 30, 2024 5:26 AM

Author:Antonia Fraser,David Cannadine,Brenda Buchanan,Justin Champion,David Cressy,Pauline Croft,Mike Jay

Gunpowder Plots

400 years ago this November the most ambitious and extraordinary plot ever conceived in this country came close to success: the attempt by Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators to destroy in a single, annihilating blast the entire British ruling class and royal family.

This book draws on the expertise of different writers to bring to life the immense implications of the Plot and the strange way they have echoed down to us over four centuries in what remains the quintessential English festival. Pauline Croft writes about the amazing plot itself and the anxious, unstable world of Jacobean Britain, Antonia Fraser imagines a world in which the plot had succeeded, Justin Champion dramatizes the national emergency that followed the plot's discovery and its savage anti-Catholicism, David Cressy traces how Bonfire Night has been celebrated since its inception as a holiday, Mike Jay focuses on the most famous and enduring rituals held each year at Lewes and Brenda Buchanan offers a wonderful history of fireworks in Britain.

Reviews

In his excellent and lucid account, Shephard fully makes his case that the aftermath of the liberation of Belsen was an episode in which the British can take pride...a powerful and dramatic narrative

—— Frank McLynn , Independent

A solidly researched, scrupulously balanced and sensitive account of the liberation that will serve as a fitting tribute and a guide to future generations about how best to remember Belsen

—— David Cesarini , Guardian

A moving story

—— Times Literary Supplement

Contributors to the ever-growing opus of Holocaust historiography have been accused by some of creating an industry. However, Shephard's contribution is not superfluous and he negotiates his harrowing material surefootedly

—— Katrina Goldstone , Irish Times

probably the most harrowing book I'll ever read...gripping....its subject matter is something that should never be forgotten

—— Bookseller

a fascinating, compelling read

—— Ham and High

Few books on the Third Reich offer a genuinely fresh perspective on the period but Roger Moorhouse's engrossing chronicle of the plots against Hitler does

—— Nick Rennison , The Sunday Times

This book shows what a murderous place Hitler's Reich was, and that the Fuhrer had the devil's own luck

—— M.R.D. Foot

The first detailed account of the numerous attempts to kill one of history's most reviled dictators

—— Herald

Osborne has written a fluent and fascinating book.... Read and enjoy this remarkable book

—— THES

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