A. K. Blakemore Doom Painting

It is 1381. England, reeling from plague and years of conflict abroad, is a tinderbox waiting to spark. As the wealthy landowners try to squeeze more coin from the masses, the peasants begin to rebel, coming together against the powers that threaten their livelihoods. Set over sixteen days, Doom Painting roves across England as the rebellion grows and swells, ultimately marching to London to take its demands to the child King Richard II. Out of the revolt emerges an enigmatic and charismatic leader in Wat Tyler, an opportunistic and mercurial rogue whose morality is birthed by the cause, and who shapes an identity for the English which has never been lost. Written in sinuous and exhilarating prose, A.K. Blakemore's thrilling retelling of the Peasant's Revolt shows how - for one bloody summer - the common people seized control of their narrative.