The Bodley Head, London, 2009. Hardcovers. Book Condition: Near Fine. except for slight foxing and yellowing on top edge. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. First Edition, First Printing. 9 1/2" x 6 1/2". In black hardcovers with silver titles on spine. Illustrated with black and white photographs. The story of Britain immediately before, during and after the greatest catastrophe in human history - the Black Death. Challenging widely-accepted theories about the plague's spread and long-term effects, the book promises to be the definitive account of Britain during this pandemic. Nothing experienced in human history, before or since, eclipses the terror, tragedy and scale of the Black Death, the disease which killed millions of people in Medieval Europe. The Scourging Angel tells the story of Britain immediately before, during and after this catastrophe. Against a backdrop of empty homes, half-built cathedrals and pestilence-saturated cities, we see communities gripped by unimaginable fear, shock and paranoia. By the time it completed its pestilential journey through the British Isles in 1350, the Black Death had left half the population dead. Despite the startling toll of life, physical devastation and sheer human chaos it inflicted, Britain showed an impressive resilience. Amid disaster many found opportunity, and the story of the Black Death is ultimately one of survival. Review 'Benedict Gummer's highly impressive book charts the subsequent spread of the disease in meticulous and terrible detail' --The Sunday Telegraph 'Not only is Gummer's book a treasure chest of detail...it is also full of shrewd observations. The Scourging Angel is an elegant and self-assured debut.' --Telegraph 'An engaging if somewhat eccentric book... rarely fails to hold the reader's attention' --Literary Review 'This remarkable, ambitious book by a new, young historian is positive about the new society that survived disaster. Read on and learn a very great deal about life in Britain and more widely throughout Europe in the mid-14th century' --The Times '[A] glorious picture of 14th-century England ... a work of self-evident scholarship ... this truly impressive work of narrative and interpretative history. In Mr Gummer's elegant prose, with its ultra-precise vocabulary, Britain in the mid 14th century comes alive: you see it, hear it, smell it --Country Life
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