Gentry

Product Description

Adam Nicolson tells the story of England through the history of fourteen gentry families
- from the 15th century to the present day. This sparkling work of history reads like a real-life Downton Abbey as the loves hatreds & many times of grief of his chosen cast illuminate the grand events of history. We may well be a nation of shopkeepers but for generations England was a country dominated by its middling families rooted on their land in their locality with a healthy interest in turning a profit from their property & a deep distrust of the centralised state. The virtues we may all believe to be part of the English culture
- honesty affability courtesy liberality
- each of these has their source in gentry life cultivated over five hundred years. These folk were the backbone of Engl&. Adam Nicolsons riveting new book concentrates on fourteen families from 1400 to the present day. From the medieval gung-ho of the Plumpton family to the high-seas adventures of the Lascelles in the eighteenth century to more modern examples the book provides a chronological picture of the English seen through these intimate passionate powerful stories of family saga. Drawing on a wealth of unpublished archive material here is a vivid depiction of the life & code of the gentry. The Gentry is first & foremost a wonderful sweep of English history shedding light on the creation of the distinctive English character but with the sheer readability of an epic novel.