The Blood in Winter
A Nation Descends, 1642
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The Blood in Winter
Narrated by:
Mark Meadows
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Narrated by:
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Mark Meadows
About this listen
'Healey has done it again. The Blood in Winter is history as it should be told, where new light is cast upon one of the most dramatic years in British history. Shaped by meticulous research and a narrative worthy of any political thriller, the result is masterful' ALICE LOXTON
In 1641, England exits a plague-ridden and unstable summer having reached a semblance of peace: the English and Scottish armies have disbanded, legislation has passed to ensure Parliament will continue to sit and the people are tentatively optimistic. Radical politicians congratulate themselves on a stunning political victory. Royal servants are coming to accept an altered future.
But King Charles I is not satisfied with peace – he wants revenge.
So begins England's winter of discontent. As revolutionary sects of London begin to generate new ideas about democracy, as radical new religious groups seek power and as Ireland explodes into revolt, Charles hatches a plan to restore his absolute rule. On 4 January 1642 he marches on Westminster, seeking to arrest five Members of Parliament – and so sets in motion a series of events that will lead to bloodshed and war, changing a nation forever.
The Blood in Winter tells the story of an English people's great political awakening, and of a nation that splintered into bloodshed at a terrifying speed. Jonathan Healey utilises meticulous archival research to recreate the claustrophobic atmosphere of the day, with rowdy protestors in the streets and London blanketed in coal smoke. From the radical enclaves of public houses to a king forced from his capital by the people, it is a story of remarkable but flawed characters, all faced with unpalatable choices, and a frightening picture of a society in profound distress.©2025 Dr Jonathan Healey (P)2025 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Critic reviews
This is everything a history book should be. Healey fills his narrative with portraits of extraordinary characters, which combine to make his account of Britain’s descent into Civil War a truly human one. Nothing could be more relevant to us now, in this political moment, than a history like The Blood in Winter that gives an example of how fast and almost accidentally nations can fall apart, and the individual decisions of conscience that must be made along the way’ (OPHELIA FIELD, author of The Favourite)
Healey is in the vanguard of modern popular history, and The Blood in Winter charges like a squadron of cavalry through the tumultuous year that led to the civil wars, giving equal billing to the people’s politics that shook the streets of London and the arguments and doubts that filled the houses of parliament (NADINE AKKERMAN, author of Invisible Agents)
A superb history. Healey has the rare ability to make the seventeenth century accessible without being patronising, and to cover big and important themes while keeping the reader royally entertained (SAM FREEDMAN, author of Failed State)