"Professor Hatcher cannot be faulted on his devotion to the detail, or his convincing portrayal of the village of Walsham... Individual men and women are painstakingly described... The Black Death conveys with great effectiveness the intensity of medieval English devotions and their deep preoccupation with the business of dying. Reading this book I was reminded time and again of the Tibetan Book of the Dead." -- WILL SELF THE EVENING STANDARD 'What ordinary people thought and felt, how much they understood and what they believed is impossible to say. The vast majority were illiterate, so they have left no trace of their inner lives. This is the aspect that John Hatcher seeks to rediscover, using a new method that he calls literary docudrama.' -- JOHN CAREY SUNDAY TIMES - LEAD REVIEW "John Hatcher, a distinguished economic historian, sets out to attempt something new: to describe the plague in terms of one of these hard-hit communities... more than most of the purely historical accuonts have given us." -- RICHARD BARBER THE LITERARY REVIEW "Ambridge with a body count" DAILY TELEGRAPH "a gripping read - part historical inquiry, part novel." THE INDEPENDENT "Tells you everything you ever wanted to know about the unstoppable killer plague that devastated a 14th century English Village." MAXIM MAGAZINE 'This totally absorbing book presents the best account ever written about the worst event to have ever befallen the British Isles. In the hands of John Hatcher...the extraordinary tragedy of the great plague...has been brought to life in a manner rarely attempted, and with a level of success even more rarely achieved...[Hatcher writes] medieval history 'from the inside'...can have few rivals." SIMON WINCHESTER The author is praised as' a masterly social historian' and the book as 'colourful as an episode of Midsomer Murders...informative...moving.' FINANCIAL TIMES "an entertaining and informative history book... fascinating." BELFAST NEWSLETTER "Such a significant event requires a brave and painstaking examination and eminent historian John Hatcher is more than equal to the task... entertaining, informative." WHARF -four star rating (out of five) "A historical recreation of what happens when the plague strikes a typical 14th-century town... hardhitting." SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY
