Great Tales from English History, Volume II

“Great Tales from English History” is a series of books that take the highlights from English History and condenses them into a chapter a piece. The chapters in book 2 range from Geoffrey Chaucer to Isaac Newton. I learned such fun facts as the reason why “a bandage is ‘wound’ around a ‘wound’, why ‘cough’ rhymes with ‘off’, while ‘bough’ rhymes with ‘cow’ “. The reason is because of William Caxton, the first person to publish books in mass quantity in English. There was no set way to spell words in the English language so he made it up as he went. I also discovered that the British two fingers “up yours” gesture came from the Battle of Agincourt where the French said they would cut off the fingers of show more the British archers who then used the gesture to taunt their enemy.

This isn’t just a book of amusing stories. There are serious discussions on the religious, social and political struggles in England at that time. The author relates the main stories from English History in a short and entertaining way. If you want to become familiar with the history of England without going too far in depth then this is the series for you. show less

Sometimes you pick up a book, and it seems you just can't put it down. This is one of those books. Most of the topics he covers are familiar, but he adds details I didn't know. There are a few I was not familiar with, but they were as interesting, sometimes even more so. He doesn't go into the sort of minute detail that would be of interest only to a scholar of history; he keeps his tales light and lively to interest the lay reader, without being sensational or superficial. I need to find the first volume.

A pretty good example of snapshot history -- brief chapters spotlighting a curious, amusing or otherwise entertaining snippet from the lives of the rich and famous. We learn, for example, that Joan of Arc often went topless among her comrades in arms, that Charles VI of France was a lunatic who howled like a wolf and believed he was made of glass, and that Anne of Cleves had such powerful BO that Henry VIII couldn't perform his husbandly function; a real problem in the pre-Viagra era when siring a male child was job one. I listened to an audio book version driving to and from work, and this is very likely the best way to experience this book; although illustrations of topless Joan might have proved enlightening.

IFeb 2007 - I'm currently coming towards the end of Robert Lacey's third volume from Great Tales from English History - The Battle of the Boyne to DNA. I discovered the first two volumes (Cheddar man to the Peasant's Revolt and Chaucer to the Glorious Revolution) by accident in our local discount bookstore. This third volume came out at the end of last year.
They really are great volumes. Each chapter is headed by a date and a neat illustration. Then comes a succinct, well told account of an incident from English history. There is some scholarship and useful disambiguation but the main thing is a story well told. Like most books today the standpoint is a humanist one but I would commend these books to almost anyone. Lacey has done for me show more what Rowland W Purton was doing all those years ago in Days of Glory. show less

Robert Lacey fills us in on the snippets of English history from the late 14th century up to the early 18th. Only the amusing and entertaining and informative bits of history, which makes this a very pleasant and quick read. I can’t comment much on accuracy because a lot of the book goes beyond my time period (although he does give too much credit to Thomas More in his section on Richard III - why do people persist in doing this?), but I enjoyed it, particularly the bits I didn’t know. This is a book for people who only want a glance at the best tales, not an indepth history. It’s a great starting point, but that’s about it.

I’m still looking for volume 1, though, which covers my favorite period in English history!

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The second volume of this excellent series moves from Chaucer to Newton covering the Plantagenets, Tudors, Stuarts, The Civil War and The Glorious Revolution while staying focused on the characters and stories that illustrate the continuing development of England as a country and a society. The periods covered here are the areas of English history where I’ve done the most reading so at times I felt Lacey had skipped some important parts, and the 2012 discoveries under a Leicester parking lot make some of his text on Richard III now seem a little outdated. But overall it’s another enjoyable and informative read.

Great Tales from English History (Book 2): Joan of Arc, the Princes in the Tower, Bloody Mary, Oliver Cromwell, Sir Isaac Newton, and More by Robert Lacey. This was a quick read, for history. Nothing new, this would be a great first book or overview of English history from about 1400-1650. If you've already studied this period, this will lack depth.