The Black Death by Philip Ziegler

The Black Death by Philip Ziegler

"As exciting and readable an account as you could
wish."  -- The Guardian

"Fascinating." - Bill Bryson

The Black Death vividly and comprehensively brings to light the full horror of this uniquely catastrophic event that hastened the disintegration of an age.

A series of natural disasters in the Orient during the
fourteenth century brought about the most devastating period of death and
destruction in European history. The epidemic killed one-third of Europe's
people over a period of three years, and the resulting social and economic
upheaval was on a scale unparalleled in all of recorded history. Synthesizing
the records of contemporary chroniclers and the work of later historians,
Philip Ziegler offers a critically acclaimed overview of this crucial epoch in a
single masterly volume. 

Philip Ziegler was educated at Eton and New College, Oxford. A former member of the diplomatic service, he has written biographies of King William IV, Lord Melbourne, Lady Diana Cooper, Lord Mountbatten, King Edward VIII, Harold Wilson, and Osbert Sitwell. His most recent book is Legacy: Cecil Rhodes, the Rhodes Trust and Rhodes Scholarships. He is at work on the official biography of Prime Minister Edward Heath. Mr. Ziegler lives with his wife in Kensington, London.