Seven Ages Of Britain

by Justin Pollard

Seven Ages of Britain Justin Pollard and Bettany Hughes

Genres: History, Nonfiction

Hardcover

First published November 30, 2004

About the author

Justin Pollard was born in Hertfordshire and educated at St. Albans School and Downing College, Cambridge where he was president of the Poohsticks Society.

Since then he has written nine books, a few articles for magazines like History Today, BBC History Magazine and the Idler and he is currently one of the writers of the BBC panel show QI.

He is one of the founders of Unbound - http://www.unbound.co.uk - a new crowd-funding site putting authors directly in touch with their readers.

He also runs a company called Visual Artefact which provides scripting and historical advice for feature films. His credits include Shekhar Kapur’s ‘Elizabeth’, Joe Wright’s ‘Atonement’, Tim Burton’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and Pirates of the Caribbean 4.

In television drama he is the historical consultant for the BBC TV/Showtime series ‘The Tudors’ - which gets him into a lot of trouble with other historians.

He is also the co-founder of crowd-funding book website www.unbound.co.uk.

He lives in Dorset where he grows vegetables and wonders where all the sheep have gone.

Reviews

[Katie_la_geek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this up on a whim from an Oxfam charity shop and I am glad I did. Justin Pollard takes the reader through the history of England, making it both interesting and personal. Really great book.

[Leigh McCabe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a good read, telling the story of the ordinary people and the story of the land, from the mesolithic to the beginning of the agricultural and industrial revolution. It uses artefacts, historical sources, real people and the land itself to tell the story in a really entertaining way.

[Susan Banks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pollard brings to life the ordinary people of the past and I particularly appreciated the early chapters on prehistory. It is an easy to read Gallop through the past.

[Pablo M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great first four ages, then too religion heavy.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating charge through Britain's past from pre-history to the industrial revolution, picking up on not just the major events but also their impact on the everyday people of these isles. This book kept me gripped from beginning to end as I learnt a lot not just about eras I am not familiar with, but also those I thought I knew reasonably well. The author's style is gentle and engaging, an easy read. As well as gemming up on my history, I also managed to mine a few nuggets for some notes I am putting together for the Pendragon rpg.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice overview of a long period of time. I enjoyed this book a lot, in particular how it honed in on individual lives from time to time, showing how the big religious/political changes effected the man in the field. It has left me wanting to read further on a number of topics.

[Julie Worthington · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love history and this is history from a very unique perspective.