Doom Painting by A K Blakemore

Doom Painting by A K Blakemore

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 bloody summer - the people of England seize control.

Exceptional, exquisite and urgent, Doom Painting is so much more than historical fictionIt captures within its pages both the rebelliousness of the fourteenth century and the urgent spirit of our Age. The very writing of it must be considered an act of rebellion, a call to action, an incitement to hope. A reminder that, through the Ages, there have been people willing to stand up to England's leaders and say, enough is enough. Blakemore's prose is delectable, of course - there are sentences in this book that will live with me forever - but her intellectual grasp of history and her compassion for its characters make this an exceptional work that everyone should read, no matter whether they consider themselves more entranced by England's past or ambitious for its future -- Annie Garthwaite

A.K.Blakemore's The Manningtree Witches (Granta, 2021), won the Desmond Elliott Prize, was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, and was a Waterstones Book of the Month. Her second novel The Glutton (Granta, 2023) was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize. She is the author of two full-length collections of poetry, Humbert Summer and Fondue, which was awarded the 2019 Ledbury Forte Prize for Best Second Collection, and has also translated the work of Sichuanese poet Yu Yoyo. Her poetry and prose has appeared in the London Review of Books, Poetry, the Poetry Review and the White Review, among other publications.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781803512730
ISBN 10	1803512733
Title	Doom Painting
Author	A K Blakemore
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Granta Books
Year published	2026-09-24
Number of pages	672
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.