Summer of Blood

Anyone who fancies a break from the sponsor-heavy sprawl of the World Cup might enjoy Richard Sanders’ excellent history of British football. It’s called ‘Beastly Fury: The Strange Birth of British Football’. I am reading it in hardback, but it came out last year some time so is probably out in soft-cover now. Sanders starts the story proper with the Shrove Tuesday brawls of the nineteenth century, but there are a couple of mentions of the medieval game early on.

A rather entertaining piece here from the Times, reporting on an article in the International Journal of Obesity. Apparently, artists’ representations of the fare on offer at the Last Supper have been getting steadily bigger since the later Middle Ages.

This has immense potential for gameplay featuring historical characters.

Trivia: one of the players here is my daughter’s godfather. The other was once violently sick in my bathroom sink. I’ll let you guess which is which

For reasons fully encapsulated by this review of the V&A medieval and Renaissance galleries, from today’s Evening Standard. Read Bob Hawkins from Beckenham’s pithy comment, likening Sewell to the similarly cantankerous Geoffrey Boycott, who has been at his most brilliantly puffed-up and ridiculous on TMS today.

Many of the mainstream newspapers have now published reviews of ‘Summer of Blood’. Here’s a round-up.

The Telegraph

Tom Payne likened the events of June 1381 with the current political turmoil. He (or perhaps the kind folk on the Telegraph books desk) gave the book four stars out of five.

Choice cut: “To read this book, it’s a relief that the A2 and the A12 aren’t already blocked with yeomanry ready to lynch MPs for betraying Queen and country. “

Click here to read Tom Payne’s review.

The Sunday Times

John Guy was unsure about the role of women in the book and wanted more complexity in the explanation of the Peasants’ Revolt’s causes. Phooey. Still, it was a very prominent review and rather beautifully laid out.

Choice cut: “Jones paints a vivid portrait of Tyler…”

Yeah, let’s not worry about what comes after that ellipsis.

Click here to read John Guy’s review.

The Herald

A meaty review by Colin Waters under the headline ‘Rural rebels with a familiar war cry’ appeared in mid-May. I cannot presently locate it online, but if I find a link it will go up. It described ‘Summer of Blood’ as ‘pacy, direct and sensitive to the contradictions between what we know happened and what we have imagined over the centuries.’

Choice cut: “The Peasants’ Revolt could have been designed for the current fashion in historical studies for character-driven strong narratives.”

The Scotsman

The Scotsman ran a brief but natty review.

Choice cut: “This short, clear history of a long, hot summer is… an introduction to the unexpected complexity of the age.”

Click here to read the Scotsman review.

The rest

I’ll post some of the blog links to SOB, as well as a link to my slot on last week’s BBC Today programme and some recent articles I’ve written, later today. If you’ve spotted any reviews I might have missed, do please email and let me know