Synopses & Reviews
A dazzling history of the Tower of London, one of the world's busiest tourist attractions, and the people who populated it Castle, royal palace, prison, torture chamber, execution site, zoo, mint, home to the crown jewels, armory, record office, observatory, and the most visited tourist attraction in the UK: The Tower of London has been all these things and more. No building in Britain has been more intimately involved in the island's story than this mighty, brooding stronghold in the very heart of the capital, a place which has stood at the epicenter of dramatic, bloody and frequently cruel events for almost a thousand years. Now historian Nigel Jones sets this dramatic story firmly in the context of national—and international—events. In a gripping account drawn from primary sources and lavishly illustrated with sixteen pages of stunning photographs, he captures the Tower in its many changing moods and its many diverse functions. Here, for the first time, is a thematic portrayal of the Tower of london not just as an ancient structure, but as a living symbol of the nation of Great Britain.
Review
“Heads roll throughout Jones pages, frequently under the dynasty that endowed the Tower with its most sinister associations, the Tudors. . . . This is popular history well arranged and well written.” —Booklist
“Historian and journalist Jones enlightens and delights in this history of the London Tower. A historians history that deserves pride of place in every library.” —Kirkus Reviews
“A marvelous, authoritative, and entertaining history of England, tightly focused and richly detailed.” —Publishers Weekly
Synopsis
A gripping portrait of life in Britain in a year that shook Europe to its foundations 1914 dawned with Britain at peace, albeit troubled by faultlines within and threats without: Ireland trembled on the brink of civil war; suffragette agitation was assuming an ever more violent hue; and suspicions of Germany's ambitions bred a paranoia expressed in a rash of "invasion scare" literature. Then when shots rang out in Sarajevo on June 28th, they set in motion a tumble of diplomatic dominos that led to Britain declaring war on Germany. Nigel Jones depicts every facet of a year that changed Britain for ever. From gun-running in Ulster to an attack by suffragettes on a Velasquez painting in the National Gallery; from the launch of HMHS Britannic to cricketer J.T. Hearne's 3,000th first-class wicket; from the opening of London's first nightclub to the embarking for Belgium of the BEF, he traces the events of a momentous year, its benign domestic beginnings to its descent into the nightmare of European war.
About the Author
NIGEL JONES is a historian, journalist, and biographer, covering subjects ranging from Nazi Germany to the lives of British writers. He has written for the Cambridge Evening News, the Press Association News Agency, and has been an editor on BBC and independent radio, as well as for History Today and BBC History magazines.