Shop Ireland

The Black Death: The Intimate Story of a Village in Crisis, 1345-50: An Intimate History by: John Hatcher

Click to tell a friend about this item...

Publisher: Phoenix
Release date: 9th July, 2009
Media: Paperback

Similar Products

• The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century
• Life in a Medieval Village
• The Scourging Angel: The Black Death in the British Isles
• Return of the Black Death: The World's Greatest Serial Killer
• Making a Living in the Middle Ages: The People of Britain, 850-1520 (New Economic History of Britain)
• See more...

Click here to add a review!

Average rating -

Rating: - When God thunders, "I'll show YOU!"

"Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence ... He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust: His truth shall be thy sword and buckler ... Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day ... Nor for the pestilence that walketh in the darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday ... A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come on nigh thee." - From Psalm 91, the comfort of Master John, as quoted in THE BLACK DEATH

With THE BLACK DEATH, author John Hatcher has made an intelligent and clever approach at describing what it was perhaps like for the Average John Q Citizen to experience the pandemic outbreak of the Black Death, the "plague" caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, which came out of Central Asia and peaked in Europe in 1348-50, wiping out 30-60% of the population.

In the Preface, Hatcher explains the conundrum he faced. While he didn't want to compose yet another historical survey of the plague's progress across Europe - so many of such already exist - he also didn't want to create a completely fictional historical novel. Rather, to pen a narrative of the common man's personal experience with the disease - about which encounter there's virtually no contemporary description - John went to the public records as a starting point. In this case, they were the manorial court and accounts roles of the village of Walsham le Willows in west Suffolk, England, which are notably complete for the years in question. From these documents, the author populates the Walsham of his "docudrama" with people that really lived and engaged in the routine (and faithfully recorded) activities of life - marriages, births, deaths, petty crimes, personal legal squabbles, local elections, manorial court sessions, crop harvest yields, goods' prices, etc. - to thus paint a picture of the community's environment from 1345 to 1350, i.e. before, during, and after the Black Death struck in the Spring of 1349. Fictional dialogue between the characters, otherwise kept to a minimum, is inserted to flesh out the narrative and is based on reasonable supposition and what is known of the customs of the time.

Walsham's records have one glaring omission; there is nowhere recorded the name of the village priest. Out of necessity, then, Hatcher introduces his only completely fictional character, John Bradfield ("Master John"), God's shepherd for the parish of St. Mary's Church. As envisioned by the author, John is a learned, compassionate, honest, unworldly, wise, and pious cleric who assiduously cares for the spiritual well-being of his flock to the point, during the worst of the plague, of exhaustion; he becomes the hero of the piece. In that respect, the Walsham of THE BLACK DEATH was lucky indeed.

For those readers living in a western society where the various levels of government refrain from sponsorship of any organized religion, the importance of the Catholic Church to the everyday lives of the English commoners, as depicted in THE BLACK DEATH, may be a revelation. The central government, at this time the monarchy headed by Edward III, played virtually no role in attempts, beyond exhortations to the realm's various bishops to urge the faithful to increased prayer and penance against a background of more sermons, Masses, and powerful indulgences, to explain or protect its subjects from the pestilence as it marched inexorably across mainland Europe towards their island bastion. Master John, then, found himself at the pointy end of the only defense then believed able to potentially deflect God's wrath. The fact that the Church failed - indeed, could not but fail - does not detract from the fact that it tried. For those front-line clerics of the same honesty, competency, and dedication as Master John - and many such certainly existed (and died with the disease) - posthumous honor is due.

From an amateur historian's perspective, the second substantial lesson of the book is the change in the foundation of medieval society, i.e. the relationship of the villeins to their manorial masters, which the depopulation by disease precipitated. The surviving rustics got uppity in their demands for better wages and benefits - something they could pull off because of the resultant labor shortage - and their world was never the same again (much to the distress of the affluent Church and the landed nobility).

The volume includes a 27-page section of bibliography-based Notes and a 16-page collection of photographs of elements of paintings and illustrated manuscripts, all which support the nature of the society and environment which the author means to re-create.

Any casual or serious student of psychology, English history, and/or the effects of a universally devastating disease on societal structure should find THE BLACK DEATH convincing and absolutely fascinating. John Hatcher admirably achieved what he set out to do, and I think his book one of the best I've read all year.

Rating: - A fictional documentary

Based on manorial records and accounts from elsewhere, this book gives a vivid picture of the impact of the Black Death in the village. The author lists his sources, but these are mainly secondary, rather than the primary texts.

Rating: - Nearly brilliant

Let me say straight away that I thoroughly enjoyed both the book and the scholarship behind it, and would recommend it highly. My criticisms will, therefore, seem like nit-picking, and they probably are just that.

I read this just after finishing reading Benedict Gummer's "The Scourging Angel", because I wanted to put some human detail onto the story that Gummer's immense tome examines. I like the style that Hatcher has employed; I like being able to see the events unfold through the medium of real people: empathy is a vital part of the historian's armoury, but very difficult to deploy accurately.

I'm just not sure whether Hatcher succeeds totally. We are introduced to many of the inhabitants of Walsham, but I don't think that, in the end, we are exposed totally to their feelings. If it is to work, the docu-drama method needs to be developed fully and I get the impression that, at times, Hatcher baulked at reflecting the hideously harrowing nature of the events of those dreadful months for the people who lived and died. Even the central character, the priest, is not allowed fully to express his thoughts, either to the people of the time or to us, his observers.

By comparison, Philip Ziegler, in one chapter of his "The Black Death" (nearly 40 years ago now), got to grips with the feelings and emotions of a typical set of villagers. I was hoping Hatcher would match that, and for me, he didn't. Despite his achieving a beautifully-detailed picture of the period, I was left wanting more depth.

As for the nit-picking, I wish his proof-readers would have picked up his misuse of "less" when he meant "fewer", on numerous occasions. And I also wish editors and publishers would realise that they don't HAVE to use the expression "The Black Death" to describe these events. It is not a matter of political correctness gone mad: that expression dates to the early 19th Century at the earliest and is thus singularly inappropriate for a book that is attempting to see events through the eyes of people living at the time.

Four stars or five? Does it matter? It's well worth the reading.

Rating: - An exellent and informative read.

This well researched and fascinating account of the "Black Death" had me gripped. The mixture of fact and fiction worked well. The characters were entirely believable and the sense of place was strong. The priest caring for the sufferers was sympathetically portrayed and the importance of religion emphasized. I knew the effects of the shortage of workers following the plague, but probably had not realised what a hold the feudal system had on the poor. I had not previously read much about this time and it was brought to life with great detail and without sentimentality.

Browse Categories

• - General
• - Black Death
• - General AAS
• - General AAS
• - History of Medicine
• - General AAS
• - English
• - Paperback
• - Regular Size