Helen Castor
The First Poll Tax Riots
England, Arise: The People, the King and the Great Revolt of 1381
By Juliet Barker
Little, Brown 506pp £25 order from our bookshop
In the summer of 1381 the University of Cambridge found itself in a deep and frightening crisis. Simmering tensions between town and gown had taken a violent turn, and on 15 and 16 June protesters stormed the houses of the university’s masters and officials, ransacking their coffers for the parchment and papers on which were recorded the grants of the university’s rights. In the midsummer sun, this invaluable archive was heaped up in the market square and set alight. When the flames died down, a woman named Margery Starre scattered fistfuls of ash into the air, crying, ‘Away with the learning of clerks! Away with it!’
This rebellion against academic privilege isn’t, perhaps, what we imagine when we think of the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. And that is the point of Juliet Barker’s fine and thoughtful book: that the familiar narrative of the revolt – even its
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'There are at least two dozen members of the House of Commons today whose names I cannot read without laughing because I know what poseurs and place-seekers they are.'
From the archive, Christopher Hitchens on the Oxford Union.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/mother-of-unions
Chuffed to be on the Curiosity Pill 2020 round-up for my @Lit_Review piece on swimming, which I cannot wait to get back to after 10+ months away https://literaryreview.co.uk/different-strokes https://twitter.com/RNGCrit/status/1351922254687383553
'The authors do not shrink from spelling out the scale of the killings when the Rhodesians made long-distance raids on guerrilla camps in Mozambique and Zambia.'
Xan Smiley on how Rhodesia became Zimbabwe.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/what-the-secret-agent-saw