DOOM PAINTING

The sixteen days of the Peasant s Revolt when new versions of England were born under the charismatic leader Wat Tyler brought to life in a dazzlingly inventive novel by the author of The Manningtree Witches It is 1381 England reeling from plague and years of conflict abroad is a tinderbox waiting to spark Two childhood friends ride into the town of Brentwood Essex where they come upon an altercation with a local Justice bent on squeezing more coin from the masses Thus begins a rebellion of the common folk loyal to the king but not to those wealthy landowners who curtail their freedoms the multitude finding cause against the powers that threaten their livelihoods Set over sixteen days Doom Painting roves across England as the revolt grows and swells and the rebels march to London to take their demands to the child king Richard II Out of the rebellion emerges its enigmatic and charismatic leader Wat Tyler an opportunistic and mercurial rogue whose morality is birthed by the cause and who shapes an identity for the English which has never been lost A K Blakemore s thrilling retelling of the Peasants Revolt renders it a definitive moment in British history In the meeting of peasantry and nobility new versions of England are born and for one