A review by kizzia
The Blazing World: A New History of Revolutionary England, 1603-1689 by Jonathan Healey

dark hopeful informative reflective tense slow-paced

4.5

Given that before I listened to this book via audible my knowledge of the seventeenth century mostly revolved around the deposition and death of Charles I and then the Great Fire of London, with colour generated by the most excellent this book was a joyful eye opener. Well written, full of fascinating tidbits and tangents that included the perspective and experiences of the normal people living through it, not just the aristocracy, Jonathan painted a full and vivid picture of a tumultuous century. 

And the blurb isn’t wrong about the relevance to our lives today of what happened over three centuries ago. The unrest and the political posturing we see now is almost a mirror image of what happened then, never mind that the short lived republic and the restoration is key to understanding how our democracy, government and state functions today. At 529 pages there’s a lot of this book but I promise that it’s absolutely worth your time. 

The audiobook was read by Oliver Hembrough and I found his narration easy to listen to and his diction very clear.