Overview

A dramatic, immersive and thrillingly original account of a defining episode in the English Civil War **A TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES, GUARDIAN, TELEGRAPH, SPECTATOR, THE CRITIC, MAIL ON SUNDAY, ECONOMIST AND PROSPECT BOOK OF THE YEAR** 'A gifted narrative historian, eloquent, graceful and witty; the stories she tells are the ones we all should know' Hilary Mantel It was a time of climate change and colonialism, puritans and populism, witch hunts and war . . . Drawing on unpublished manuscripts and the voices of countless victims of the crossfire, Jessie Childs weaves a thrilling tale of war and peace, terror and faith, savagery and civilisation. Throughout, we follow artists, apothecaries, merchants and their families from the streets of London as they descend on the royalist stronghold of Basing House. The Siege of Loyalty House is an immersive and electrifying account of a defining episode in a war that would turn Britain - and the world - upside down. __________ 'Extraordinary, thrilling, immersive ... at times almost Tolstoyan in its emotional intelligence and literary power' Simon Schama 'Compellingly readable... a beautifully written and lucid account' Mail on Sunday 'Brilliant. Original. Gripping.' Antonia Fraser 'Beautifully written and gripping from first page to last. A sparkling book by one of the UK's finest historians' Peter Frankopan 'The Siege of Loyalty House is not only deeply researched. Childs has composed a wonderfully poetic narrative and adds a touch of the gothic' The Times 'Successfully brings the ghastliness of the period to life, dramatically, vividly and with pathos' Charles Spencer, Spectator

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9781784702090

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Reviews

Atmospheric, unflinching and...exquisitely witty * Guardian, *Books of the Year* * This is war as it should be, passionate, brutal, bloody and chaotic, all described in luscious, evocative prose * The Times, *Books of the Year* * Jessie Childs is one of the finest historians working today; her illuminating, deeply researched, and beautifully written books are never anything short of superlative, and here she does it again. This is a vivid, thrilling story, rendered in delicious prose and brilliant with gems dug from the archives -- Suzannah Lipscomb A gripping account of the agony at Basing... Characters step off the page... The prose sparkles... Childs's book conveys the raw emotion of events, especially the trauma of the siege itself... In her aim 'to recover the shock of that experience and to look upon the face of the war' Childs could be describing the trenches of Ypres or Bakhmut or the sieges of Leningrad or Mariupol -- Malcolm Gaskill * London Review of Books * Compelling... Childs reveals brilliantly the world of the Civil War in the grain of sand that is Basing House. She captures the horror, the courage, the sheer humanity of those, both besiegers and besieged, who endured the long, desperate lulls punctuated by intense episodes of visceral violence * Daily Telegraph * The Siege of Loyalty House... enriches the packed civil war bookshelf with this elegantly written, close-focus history of a place whose ordeals epitomised the pain of a struggle that tore homes, clans, trades, and souls apart * Financial Times * A spectacular work of scholarship, this is epic, vital history, sweeping from the great trends and ideas of the time to the individual details of vividly lived lives. This brilliant book takes you into the heart of the Civil War, the brutal struggle for the sympathies of a country, the men who fought, women who tried to survive; this is blood, desire and struggle on the page, taking you deep into the seventeenth century world; you can feel its beating heart -- Kate Williams Compellingly readable... [a] beautifully written and lucid account * Mail on Sunday * A thrilling account of Basing House, a royalist stronghold during the English Civil War nicknamed 'Loyalty' and the sieges it withstood until its fall to Oliver Cromwell in 1645 * New York Times * Riveting... The breaking of such lives and communities makes poignant reading... [Childs's] focus is local and English, but the story is human and timeless * Economist *

Beautifully written and gripping from first page to last. A sparkling book by one of the UK's finest historians -- Peter Frankopan A thrilling, immersive read, especially searing in our own tormented and besieged times. Her beautiful writing drops the reader deep in the war, sees it through a cast of extraordinary characters from both sides of the terrible conflict, but most of all, shines with a compassionate understanding of human courage, folly, obstinacy and frailty, at times almost Tolstoyan in its emotional intelligence and literary power -- Simon Schama Jessie Childs is one of the finest historians working today; her illuminating, deeply researched, and beautifully written books are never anything short of superlative, and here she does it again. This is a vivid, thrilling story, rendered in delicious prose and brilliant with gems dug from the archives -- Suzannah Lipscomb She is a gifted narrative historian, eloquent, graceful and witty; the stories she tells are the ones we all should know -- Hilary Mantel A perfectly crafted triumph of narrative history... One of the most pulsating books on seventeenth-century England I have read for many years * Jonathan Healey, The Critic *

A perfectly crafted triumph of narrative history... One of the most pulsating books on seventeenth-century England I have read for many years * Jonathan Healey, The Critic * [Childs's] great strength is her ability to deliver first-rate scholarship in really luscious prose, [and she] uses Basing as a microcosm through which to view the civil war in all its fog and mess * Guardian * Childs...has a good eye for evocative detail... [The Siege of Loyalty House is a] highly readable account [of the civil war] * Times Literary Supplement * The Siege of Loyalty House... enriches the packed civil war bookshelf with this elegantly written, close-focus history of a place whose ordeals epitomised the pain of a struggle that tore homes, clans, trades, and souls apart * Financial Times * Compellingly readable... [a] beautifully written and lucid account * Mail on Sunday *

Author Information

Jessie Childs is the award-winning author of God's Traitors (PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History) and Henry VIII's Last Victim (Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography). She has written and reviewed for many papers, including the Sunday Times, Guardian and London Review of Books, and is an editorial adviser of History Today. Her TV contributions include the BAFTA-nominated Elizabeth I's Secret Agents (BBC 2 & PBS) and two BBC series on Charles I.

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