Devil-Land

England Under Siege, 1588-1688

By: Clare Jackson

Narrated by: Emma Gregory

Brought to you by Penguin.

A Book of the Year 2021, as chosen by The Times, New Statesman, Telegraph and Times Literary Supplement.

A groundbreaking portrait of the most turbulent century in English history.

Among foreign observers, 17th-century England was known as 'Devil-Land': a diabolical country of fallen angels, torn apart by seditious rebellion, religious extremism and royal collapse. Clare Jackson's dazzling original account of English history's most turbulent and radical era tells the story of a nation in a state of near continual crisis.

As an unmarried heretic with no heir, Elizabeth I was regarded with horror by Catholic Europe, while her Stuart successors, James I and Charles I, were seen as impecunious and incompetent. The traumatic civil wars, regicide and a republican Commonwealth were followed by the floundering foreign-leaning rule of Charles II and his brother, James II, before William of Orange invaded England with a Dutch army and a new order was imposed.

Devil-Land reveals England as, in many ways, a 'failed state': endemically unstable and rocked by devastating events from the Gunpowder Plot to the Great Fire of London. Catastrophe nevertheless bred creativity, and Jackson makes brilliant use of eyewitness accounts—many penned by stupefied foreigners—to dramatize her great story. Starting on the eve of the Spanish Armada in 1588 and concluding with a not-so 'Glorious Revolution' a hundred years later, Devil-Land is a spectacular reinterpretation of England's vexed and enthralling past.

©2021 Clare Jackson (P)2022 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"A big historical advance. Ours, it turns out, is a very un-insular 'Island Story'. And its 17th-century chapter will never look quite the same again." (John Adamson, Sunday Times)

Different Slant on the English Civil War

A very dull, slow reader didn’t help a very slow moving depiction of foreigners take on the chaos that was Stuart England . The book took an interesting slant on an oft told story but was told in a very slow pace. I finally listened at 1.5 to get through it.

Fascinating

I very much enjoyed this book. The book covers the period from 1588 to around 1688. The detail and style make this a great read. Highly recommended.

Great book, pity about narrator

The book is so well-written and researched. I have no problem with that. The problem is with the narration of this audiobook. Sadly, it looks like no quality control was done of the pronunciation of some of the foreign names/words. The voice is good, but when you pronounce “Mainz” as ‘mairz’ intead of ‘minez’ for English speakers, this is a shame. Or “Rheims”, when you pronounce it ‘reems’, I nearly felt like crying. It should be pronounced ‘haarns’ for English speakers with the ‘n’ hardly being audible. This is as close in English spelling I could make that particular pronunciation. Or “particulier”, should not be ‘particulair’. It should be ‘particooliay’.

Constantijn Huygens would be particularly dismayed by the butchering of his surname! ‘Hogans’! What the hell is that?? It should sound in Dutch like ‘Howhens’. ‘G’ in Dutch is sounded like an English ‘h’ for many words. I’ll give one last terrible pronunciation which has made me end this book prematurely and sadly. It was “Bogusław Radziwiłł”, a Polish personage. The narrator pronounced it ‘Boguslore Radziwill’. It shoud be ‘Boguswaf Radgiview’ in English spelling pronunciation. The ‘ł’ has a notch across its length for a reason, Emma.

I can’t take any more of this bombed audiobook. The narrator clearly didn’t put enough work into researching foreign words and pronunciation before going ahead. Perhaps maybe try reading it once through and then doing narration when familiar with all foreign words?? One would expect a better performance for a book that won the Wolfson prize. I wish Clare Jackson herself had performed it. I’m sure she would have done a stellar job.

The Exciting Made “Meh”

For a history buff, this account is coherent only because the story is known, but for a person seeking to learn about the period, it is an astounding array of highbrow, elite minutia with almost no explanation. Ultimately, instead of giving a new take, the book offers a set piece to display deep learning and knowledge that yields no greater understanding. Very disappointing.