Restoration

An in-the-round portrait of life in England under the Restoration, focusing on the year of the Great Fire of London.

In an England inhabited by Pepys, Evelyn, Dryden, Hobbes and the young Isaac Newton, Charles II is king, and the nation is beginning to relax a little after the tough, joyless years of Cromwell's Protectorate. In RESTORATION, Alex Larman paints a fascinating portrait of a country in the throes of social, political and cultural change following the convulsions of the Interregnum. Exploring every level of English society, from innkeepers and upholsterers to lawyers and courtiers, and examining themes as diverse as marriage, sexuality and religion, he creates a pointilliste and multi-faceted portrait of Restoration England. By looking at the year 1666 through the eyes of the people of the time, by revealing what they ate and drank, how they loved, lived and died and how they interacted, Alex Larman brings alive the England of 300 years ago as you have never seen it before: exciting, tangible, and fully comprehensible.