A stunningly good book on a revolt which came within a few minutes of changing our history utterly --totally absorbing.

The Jacquerie of 1358 is one of the most famous and mysterious peasant uprisings of the Middle Ages. This book, the first extended study of the Jacquerie in over a century, resolves long-standing controversies about whether the revolt was just an irrational explosion of peasant hatred or simply an extension of the Parisian revolt.

In this gripping novel, Melvyn Bragg brings an extraordinary episode in English history to fresh, urgent life. At the end of May 1381, the fourteen-year-old King of England had reason to be fearful: the plague had returned, the royal coffers were empty and a draconian poll tax was being widely evaded. Yet Richard, bolstered by his powerful, admired mother, felt secure in his God-given right to reign. But within two weeks, the unthinkable happened: a vast force of common people invaded London, led by a former soldier, Walter Tyler, and the radical preacher John Ball, demanding freedom, equality and the complete uprooting of the Church and state. And for three intense, violent days, it looked as if they would sweep all before them. Now is the Time depicts the events of the Peasants' Revolt on both a grand and intimate scale, vividly portraying its central figures and telling an archetypal tale of an epic struggle between the powerful and the apparently powerless.

"The Peasants' Revolt of the summer of 1381 was one of the bloodiest events in English history. Ravaged by disease and poverty, England's villagers rose against their masters for the first time. A ragtag army, led by the mysterious Wat Tyler and the visionary preacher John Ball, was pitted against the fourteen-year-old Richard II and his advisers, who all risked their property and their lives in a desperate battle to save the English crown"--Back cover.

When Adam Delved and Eve Span is an introductory history of the inspirational English peasant rising of 1381. The book recounts, against the backdrop of 14th century England - including the daily struggle of peasants for food and justice and the devastation wrought by the Black Death - the events of the Peasants' Revolt, both in London and in the regions, conveying their breathtaking speed and bringing rebel leaders, such as Wat Tyler and John Ball, to life.