Book description
Shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize.
In this extraordinary saga, Adrian Tinniswood draws on tens of
thousands of letters, which survived by chance in an attic, to reveal
the remarkable world of the Verneys, a family of Buckinghamshire
gentry in the seventeenth century.
Here is Edmund Verney, Charles I's standard bearer at Edgehill, who
died still clutching the King's standard, and his children: Ralph,
whose support of the Parliamentarian cause during the Civil War forced
him into exile; Mun, a professional soldier who survived Cromwell's
attack on Drogheda in 1649, only to be stabbed to death two days
later; Mall, who fell pregnant out of wedlock, and Bess, who ran off
with a clergyman. There was also Henry, who was obsessed with
horse-racing; Cary, who gambled away a fortune, and Tom, a devout
Christian and a petty crook.
The next generation led equally exciting lives. Ralph's son Jack
went to Syria and made a fortune. Cousin Pen stayed at home and slept
with her sister's fiancé. Cousin Dick was hanged at Tyburn. Jack's
brother Edmund married a girl who was rich, beautiful and deeply in
love with him and within months of the marriage, she lost her mind.
The Verneys is narrative history at its very best -
fascinating, surprising, enthralling.
Adrian Tinniswood is a historian and educationalist. He lectures
regularly in Britain and the US, and was for many years consultant to
the National Trust on heritage education. He is the author of eleven
books of social and architectural history including
The Rainborowes
,
His Invention So Fertile
, his acclaimed biography of Sir Christopher Wren and
The Verneys
, which was shortlisted for the 2007 Samuel Johnson Prize for
Non-Fiction.
