The Black Death A Personal History

A unique blend of history and docudrama that "looks at the lives of ordinary people during the Black Death . . . as a third of Europe's population was wiped out." — Publishers Weekly In this fresh approach to the history of the Black Death, John Hatcher, a world-renowned scholar of the Middle Ages, recreates everyday life in a mid-fourteenth century rural English village, Walsham de Willows, as the plague rips through its homes and streets. By focusing on the experiences of ordinary villagers as they lived—and died—during the deadly epidemic of 1345-1350, Hatcher vividly places the reader directly into those tumultuous years and describes in fascinating detail the day-to-day existence of people struggling with the tragic effects of the plague. Dramatic scenes portray how contemporaries must have experienced and thought about the momentous events—and how they tried to make sense of it all. "Totally absorbing . . . a triumph." —Simon Winchester, The New York Sun "Unusually gripping." — Booklist "An unforgettable picture of a society thrown into chaos." — The Commercial Dispatch