1666

With a cinematic eye for detail Rideal throws us into the action … Rideal’s style is vivid and fluent … Rideal’s London pulses with humanity … It is Rideal’s vivid and confident style, teamed with meticulous research and a curiosity for the quotidian that makes 1666: Plague, War and Hellfire a memorable, gripping and very satisfying read - Historia

An impressively vivid account of an extraordinary piece of England’s history. Rideal is particularly good on the great set pieces - the plague, the fire and (especially) the naval battles - which she brings to dramatic life with telling details. Other writers have covered the same ground, but Rideal has drilled further than most into the scholarly literature and contemporary sources, and she deploys what she has found to great effect - The Times

A book firmly anchored in the grain of contemporary accounts, sparking with the crackle of first-hand reports - Guardian

Sympathetic and sharp-eyed … an enjoyable book about an exciting period of history - Daily Telegraph

Accessible and entertaining … a keen eye for engaging anecdote and historical personality - The Spectator

1666 is described brilliantly … a rollicking new book - Evening Standard

Bound to reveal secrets you won’t have heard before - History Revealed

Rebecca Rideal’s gripping and beautifully written account knits together a series of tumultuous events. She skilfully traces the relationship between them, and deftly interweaves the lives of ordinary people with those of kings, scientists and men of letters … Rideal vividly presents the scale of the crisis, but also brings to light some of the poignant individual tragedies. This same humanity runs through her account of the Great Fire. Rideal, a natural story-teller, brings it to life in an extraordinarily vivid way - BBC History Magazine