Small Earthquake in Wiltshire, by Eric L Jones

The Penruddock Rising against Cromwell in 1655 captured Salisbury but was soon put down. This episode – scarcely remembered despite giving rise to rule by the Major-Generals – provides insights into political plotting and hence the nature of the Interregnum. A narrative opening is followed by a survey of material evidence remaining from the period and by a deeply-researched family history of one of the three principals – a sort of ‘who-done-it?’ – explaining how he alone avoided execution (he proves to have been related to Cromwell). This is seventeenth-century history centred on Wiltshire and in unfamiliar close-up. Chapters follow on the shocks of war and defeat, and the book concludes with an evaluation of subsequent economic developments in the light of a simple scheme derived from development economics.

October 2017, 140 pages, illustrated paperback, £9.95, ISBN 978-1-9069678-47-1