Blood and Roses (Paperback)

Helen Castor

ISBN 10: 0571216714 / ISBN 13: 9780571216710

Published by Faber & Faber, London, 2005

About this Item

Paperback. The War of the Roses turned England upside down. Between 1455 and 1485 four kings lost their thrones, more than forty noblemen lost their lives on the battlefield or their heads on the block, and thousands of the men who followed them met violent deaths. The letters of the Pastons, an ambitious nouveau riche Norfolk family striving to establish themselves among the landed gentry, offer us a unique and fascinating insight into the tumult of that age. Helen Castor explores the Pastons' experiences of birth, marriage, love, death, and the realities of daily life, and unravels the turbulent politics of the family's affairs against the backdrop of civil war between York and Lancaster. A gripping family biography set against the turbulent background of the Wars of the Roses Shipping may be from our UK warehouse or from our Australian or US warehouses, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9780571216710

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Blood and Roses (Paperback)
• Publisher: Faber & Faber, London
• Publication Date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0571216714
• ISBN 13: 9780571216710
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

The War of the Roses turned England upside down. Between 1455 and 1485 four kings lost their thrones, more than forty noblemen lost their lives on the battlefield or their heads on the block, and thousands of the men who followed them met violent deaths. Yet almost nothing is known about the thoughts and feelings of the people who lived through this bloody conflict. Almost nothing, but not quite. As they made their way in a disintegrating world, a Norfolk family called the Pastons were writing letters - about politics, about business, about shopping, about love and about each other. Using these letters, the oldest surviving family correspondence in English, Helen Castor traces the extraordinary history of the Paston family across three generations. Blood & Roses tells the dramatic, moving and intensely human story of how one family survived one of the most tempestuous periods in English history.

About the Author

Helen Castor is a medieval historian and a Bye-Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. Her book, Blood & Roses, a biography of the fifteenth-century Paston family, was longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize in 2005 and won the English Association's Beatrice White Prize in 2006. Her second, She-Wolves, was made into a major BBC TV series. Joan of Arc: A History is her latest published book. She lives in London with her husband and son.