The Blazing World

‘This is a wonderful book, exhaustively researched, vigorously argued and teeming with the furious joy of seventeenth-century life’ THE TIMES
‘A brilliant, bloody account of England’s most dramatic century . . . Thrilling’ TELEGRAPH
‘The most entertaining general history of seventeenth-century England I have read’ TOM HOLLAND

The seventeenth century began as the English found themselves ruled by a Scotsman, and ended in the shadow of a Dutch invasion. Midway through, society collapsed into a civil war, followed by army coup and regicide. For a short time – for the only time in history – England was a republic. In coffee shops and alehouses, ordinary people fizzed with ideas that were angry, populist and almost impossible to control.

Despite these radical changes, few today fully understand the story of this revolutionary age. Leaders like Oliver Cromwell, Charles II and William of Orange have been reduced to caricatures, while major turning points like the Civil War and the Glorious Revolution are shrouded in myth. Yet, as Jonathan Healey argues, the period has never been more relevant. From raw politics to religious divisions, civil wars to witch trials, plague to press freedoms, The Blazing World tells the story of this strange but fascinating century in exuberant, panoramic detail.