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A review by jimbowen0306
At the Edge of the World? 3000 BC–AD 1603 by Simon Schama
3.0
I remember the Simon Scharma television show that I think this book ties in to. I'm not entirely sure why I didn't get round to reading the book at the time, but I think I remember why now.
This book covers the history of Britain from prior to the Roman invasion to the end of the reign of Elizabeth I. Therein lies the problem. A 480ish page book that covers that long a period of time is going to make the book nothing more than a "greatest hits of English History" book. There's nothing wrong with that, but it felt sometimes like I was reading things that a reasonably well read person would know already (especially if they got an A or A* at GCSE History). I jumped from this king to that king, with a little bit of "Ordinary Joe" history thrown in for good measure, because the author knew it should be there.
If you can accept that, that's fine. it's a good read. It's just I probably had inaccurate expectations of the book, given I knew everyone loved the series so much.
This book covers the history of Britain from prior to the Roman invasion to the end of the reign of Elizabeth I. Therein lies the problem. A 480ish page book that covers that long a period of time is going to make the book nothing more than a "greatest hits of English History" book. There's nothing wrong with that, but it felt sometimes like I was reading things that a reasonably well read person would know already (especially if they got an A or A* at GCSE History). I jumped from this king to that king, with a little bit of "Ordinary Joe" history thrown in for good measure, because the author knew it should be there.
If you can accept that, that's fine. it's a good read. It's just I probably had inaccurate expectations of the book, given I knew everyone loved the series so much.