A review by anbar
The Black Death: A Personal History by John Hatcher

3.0

Promises to be a fictionalization of the Black Death experience in an English farming community, but despite naming names in an attempt at providing identifiable characters to follow, the writing still feels very academic. The first two-thirds or so concentrate heavily on the death rites of the time and how the plague disrupted them, causing great theological and psychological upset; the last third (which I found the most interesting) deals mostly with the social and administrative problems caused by the mass-deaths, such as changes in labour practices and complications with inheritances.
An interesting and instructive read, but the lack of real character-following made it feel more like reporting than like a novelization. Good, but a bit dry and not as expected based on the description.