Between March 1665 and the end of 1666 England suffered one catastrophic event after another. This is the story of that devastating time.

The British and The Dutch (allied with France) were entering their second war over trade routes and the colonies they both hungered to control. As men were being killed in battle, on the home front bubonic plague was ravaging the country. More than 100,000 people died from those events. Then, on September 2, 1666, London began to burn. The fire started in a bakery and helped along by high winds, quickly spread across the city. Indecision, by the Mayor, on whether to start knocking down buildings to establish firebreaks, hampered controlling the blaze. The time wasted allowed the fire to grow out of control.

Rebecca Rideal, in her research found little known archived diaries. The story is told through common men and some intellectuals who lived in Great Britain: Isaac Newton, Christopher Wren and others. These voices bring a layer to the story that takes it from "dry history" to interesting and extremely readable.

Although the 17th century was a time of scientific and artistic enlightenment, the fire and brimstone preachers still held sway over a large majority of the population. These preachers, at the beginning of the plague, had shouted from their pulpits that the number "666" was the sign of the devil and the year was sure to bring punishment from God, for the sin oozing from London. No one knowing how the fire began, the man on the street began to spread the rumor that it was arson by the Dutch or the French. This led to public beatings and killings of anyone with a foreign accent.

A quick easy read, but only for those of you with a love of history. ( )

I found the plague and fire sections more interesting than the war sections.

I did not know Lord Rochester's poems were quite THAT rude. ( )

1666 tells the story of the Great Plague, the second Dutch War and the Great Fire of London through the eyes of the people who were there. It’s a seamless stitching together of perspectives and experiences into one dramatic and coherent story.

Characters recur, some well known, such as Pepys and Rochester and Margaret Cavendish (the subject of another recent book, Margaret the First) others less prominent – traders and preachers and bakers.

The strength of 1666 is its immediacy. You feel like you are there, listening to the cacophony of voices, rummaging through records and contracts and accounts. The flipside of this is that you lose depth. Reading it I did at times feel hungry for something more challenging, analysis rather than description, a stronger sense of the social and economic forces at play. Although I don’t have an in-depth knowledge of the period – most of what I know I’ve absorbed through osmosis and a childhood obsession with Jean Plaidy novels – there wasn’t much here that was new to me.

However, 1666 does tell you a great pacy story. The author makes it seem easy, rather than the mammoth task it must have been. It’s a good overview and starting point if you want to get a flavour of the period and some pointers as to where to find out more.
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I received a copy of 1666 from the publisher via Bookbridgr.
This review first appeared on my blog https://katevane.wordpress.com ( )

Read 2020. ( )