Honestly, I am not to be trusted. I’m not to be trusted especially in bookshops! I went into a well-known bookshop chain, just to kill time really while husband was in the opticians, and suddenly, somehow, I’d bought two books!! I have tried to contain my urges to make such purchases for two reasons – (i) I have quite a long to-be-read list already (ii) I try to buy e-books because our house is overflowing with all sorts of things and there is no room left on my bookshelves (iii) – yes I know I said two reasons but there’s another – I mostly read at night in bed and it’s easier to use an e-reader since I can snuggle down with it and also, it won’t disturb my husband. Somehow, I managed to buy two books… yes, two, why did I not content myself with one?
They are however, very good books and I’m looking forward to begin one of them this evening. The first is “Unruly“, by David Mitchell – the BAFTA winning actor and comedian, and also a writer. The book is published by Penguin and its blurb says:
“This will be the most refreshing, entertaining history of England you’ll have ever read. Certainly, the funniest. Because David Mitchell will explain how it is not all names, dates or ungraspable historical headwinds, but instead show how it’s really just a bunch of random stuff that happened with a few lucky bastards ending up on top. Some of these bastards were quite strange, but they were in charge, so we quite literally lived, and often still live, by their rules. It’s a great story. And it’s our story. If you want to know who we are in modern Britain, you need to read this book.“
I’ve always been interested in history, studied it for A-level and as part of my degree, and have read many books both factual and fiction. However, because of the syllabi I followed there are huge and important areas of which I am very ignorant. I studied World War 1 for O-level, the Norman Conquest and the early Angevin Empire at A-level, I studied the Industrial Revolution and nineteenth century English and European history for my degree, which leaves great yawning gaps which I’ve made up to some extent, by reading on my own and watching TV programmes. This book by David Mitchell will fill in some gaps, and may lead me to look at and delve deeper into particular areas and eras.
The other book I bought is “Shadowlands – a journey through lost Britain” by Matthew Green. The Amazon blurb saus:
“Historian Matthew Green travels across Britain to tell the forgotten history of our lost cities, ghost towns and vanished villages. Revealing the extraordinary stories of how these places met their fate – and exploring how they have left their mark on our landscape and our imagination – Shadowlands is a deeply evocative and dazzlingly original account of Britain’s past.“
In the introduction, Matthew says (and sums up my interest and feelings too):
“There is something thrilling about a lost city or ghost town, something that draws us in. I remember the moment in 2016 when I heard about a drowned medieval city off the coast of Suffolk, called Dunwich. Built on a cliff, much of it swept into the sea by two ferocious storms in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, precipitating a process of erosion that claimed much of the rest of it over succeeding centuries. It is frequently branded as ‘Britain’s lost Atlantis’ even though we know exactly where fragments of its ruins languish on the ocean floor.”
I used to live in the east of England and our family went to the east coast frequently over the summer and holidayed there too. The village we stayed in has also fallen victim to coastal erosion now, and has literally fallen into the sea. Matthew’s book covers many different places in different parts of the country, and I’m looking forward to finding out more about the literally lost villages by the sea.
Lois Elsden 