Book Review: Devizes by Lorna Haycock

Devizes is a history and guide book that provides a good grounding in the buildings, people and events from prehistory to around 1952.

The second edition is much improved (although the first edition was also good) and includes more instructive maps as well as a collection of colour plates in the middle of the book. The majority of the text remains the same, which is great because the book is highly readable. The book covers a wide history of the town and its development from being a satellite of the castle (which is where it got its name from: castle at the boundaries - castrum ad divisa) to being a popular market, and at times, industrial town. There are excellent photographs throughout, including an aerial view of Devizes on page 20.

Devizes is a town that I've always enjoyed visiting, so much so that I got married there in 2014 at the registry office located in Snuff Street. But, I've never really taken the time to learn about all the wonderful buildings there. The guide really came up trumps for this. Not being very mobile due to illness meant that I followed the guide via Google Street View with only a slight detour. The walking instructions are clear and the mix of text and photographs really help to appreciate this wonderful town.

This is a fantastic book to read and at 128 pages won't bog you down if you just want a primer (as I did). The guide is a great way to make the history of the town much more interactive. Definitely one to read whether you live in Wiltshire or are planning to visit.

Book Review: A History of Ancient Britain by Neil Oliver

I've been enjoying Neil Oliver documentaries for many years now, and felt it was time I gave one of his books a go.

Book Review: Wiltshire Folk Tales by Kirsty Hartsiotis

This book is a collection of retold folk tales from my adopted county of Wiltshire. While I only moved here in 2007, my wife grew up in this county and her father's side of the family have lived in Wiltshire for generations. I'd heard of the folk tale entitled 'Moonrakers' before, but thought that now my child(ren - ever hopeful!) will grow up in Wiltshire; it was time I learned a few more of these stories and the history behind them.

This book contains 30 stories and where the stories mention specific places, these can be found on the map before the introduction. I like the fact that the author has visited the various sources for the stories and has retold them. This means that all of the folk tales in the book have the same feel and narrative to them - which I feel makes for an easier read.

Not only are relevant line drawings present for each of the tales, but after each tale a box explains the documented history of the tale. The author also explains when she has merged two tales or where she's made choices to follow a certain narrative after being confronted with sources detailing different versions. Understanding the history of the tales, such as for the Amesbury Archer, ensures that the reader can build a deeper connection to this ancient county.

I can't wait to retell these tales to my son when he arrives in the (very) near future. I think it's a book that anyone that lives in Wiltshire or has any connection to it should read. My favorites are Moonrakers and Stone Soup as they show the spirit and intelligence of the Wiltshire people.

This series seems to have a book for most (if not all) counties - what can yours tell you? Perhaps your relatives have folk tales that have been passed down to them? If so, now is a good time to ask and get them recorded, either via microphone or on paper.

Book Review: Seven Ages of Britain by David Dimbleby

I like to take the long view with genealogy and think about the lives my ancestors would have lived. While I'll probably never be able to find ancestors even 500 years back, the fact that I'm here, writing this, means that I do have ancestors not just 500 years but all the way back to the origins of Homo sapiens.

While this book doesn't go that far back, starting proper at the invasion of the Romans who gave us the name Britain, it goes far enough back to set the mind wandering.

The focus of this book, and the television series it accompanies, is the past 2000 years of history of Britain through its artefacts and art.

I'm not a big fan of art; I'm the sort of person who likes what he likes and rarely ventures further. We have artwork on our walls, but I couldn't tell you the style - apart from the Monet of course, which is impressionism and is a topic I covered for my GCSE Art. This probably gives you a good impression of the art I like! However, the book and television series were insightful and helped me understand the impact of art on the people of Britain through the ages.

The television series relies on the sense of humour and the impact of the art upon David Dimbleby, but the book wasn't written by his, so how did it fare? I was very impressed with the book, each chapter covers an age and is written by an expert.

About a third of the art in the book is different to that shown in the television series and the book delves deeper. This provides a better understanding not only of the artists, or subjects of the art, but of the people of the age. Some of the artwork is unlikely to have been seen by our ancestors, but a lot of the art is about them - just ordinary people living through history, being impacted by it whether they liked it or not; whether they understood it or not.

Of course, being a fairly short book and being restricted to art, large chunks of history are missing. But there are plenty of books that deal with continuous history of Britain.

While you're unlikely to find your ancestors referenced in the book, the last four chapters are from the 1600s onwards and therefore in the realm of many people's family tree. It's nice to get this view of their world, especially seeing the art of satirists such as James Gillray in the 18 century. To him, everyone was fair game - so it's nice to wonder if our ancestors were becoming less restricted in their thoughts, after centuries of restrictions via religion and feudalism - possibly having a giggle at Gillray's creations and eagerly awaiting the next one. 

I enjoyed reading this book and advise anyone interested in family history, or just history in general, to have a read - I expect there will be few libraries that don't have a copy as the television series was quite a success.

Book Review: The History of England, Volume 1, Foundation by Peter Ackroyd

This is by far the most interesting book I've read about this period of English history. While the main text follows the lives and deaths of the rulers of our fair land, this is only part of the book.

Some of the most interesting chapters, and certainly the most important for me, are those that follow the lives of normal people, those that may not have made history, but certainly had to deal with what seems like near constant war, taxes, and change. These smaller chapters deal with certain topics at certain periods, such as children's toys and education, the house, and birth and death. Other chapters look at the country and how we evolved as a nation, how other nations saw us as a people (not positively for the main), and our climate over time.

Book Review: Seven Ages of Britain by Justin Pollard

This is an important book for me because it's the first history book I read because I chose to. I was never interested in history, I wasn't keen on the way it was presented in school and didn't choose it as a GCSE subject. I think what changed for me was that I became interested in history the year I met my wife, Lucy. I lived in North Lincolnshire where not a lot has happened, but Lucy lived in Wiltshire, where things have been happening that are nationally and internationally important for thousands of years.

So, when I saw the television series featured a fair bit of history around Wiltshire, I started watching it. Since then, I've been interested in history and pre-history and because this book focuses on 'ordinary' people; I think it was a precursor to my initial interest in family history.