The Restless Republic: Britain without a Crown

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THE SUNDAY TIMES HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022

WINNER OF THE POL ROGER DUFF COOPER PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE

Eleven years when Britain had no king.
In 1649 Britain was engulfed by revolution.

On a raw January afternoon, the Stuart king, Charles I, was executed for treason. Within weeks the English monarchy had been abolished and the useless and dangerous House of Lords discarded. The people, it was announced, were now the sovereign force in the land. What this meant, and where it would lead, no one knew.

The Restless Republic is the story of the extraordinary decade that followed. It takes as its guides the people who lived through those years. Among them is Anna Trapnel, the daughter of a Deptford shipwright whose visions transfixed the nation. John Bradshaw, the Cheshire lawyer who found himself trying the King. Marchamont Nedham, the irrepressible newspaper man and puppet master of propaganda. Gerrard Winstanley, who strove for a Utopia of common ownership where no one went hungry. William Petty, the precocious scientist whose mapping of Ireland prefaced the dispossession of tens of thousands. And the indomitable Countess of Derby who defended to the last the final Royalist stronghold on the Isle of Man.

The Restless Republic ranges from London to Leith, Cornwall to Connacht, from the corridors of power to the common fields and hillsides. Gathering her cast of trembling visionaries and banished royalists, dextrous mandarins and bewildered bystanders, Anna Keay brings to vivid life the most extraordinary and experimental decade in Britains history. It is the story of how these tempestuous years set the British Isles on a new course, and of what happened when a conservative people tried revolution.

Reviews

Her narrative brims with life, colour, humour and humanity A dazzling achievement, and I loved every page Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times

In this ceaselessly fascinating account of one of the most epochal events in the countrys history, the deserved winner of the Pol Roger Duff Cooper prize, Anna Keay skilfully delves beneath the well-worn cliches about the Commonwealth and brings a time of quiet, uncertain and ultimately fruitless revolution to vivid life. It is hard to imagine a better examination of the Protectorat Alexander Larman, Observer

This is an exceptional book about an exceptional time meticulously researched and deftly drawn character studies A triumph John Adamson, author of The Noble Revolt

An exceptional feat of imaginative engagement. Never have the kingless years been made so vivid, and never has vividness contributed so much to the understanding of them. Keay has brought off an ingenious literary experiment An entrancing achievement Blair Worden, TLS

Wonderful. Tells the story of how the British and Irish people came to be who they are Clive Myrie

Deft, confident, deeply learned and provocative Rory Stewart

[A] vivid panorama Keay conjures up with nuance and panache the single most fascinating decade in the history of Britain and Ireland, revealing it to be at once weirdly ancient and strangely modern Paul Lay, The Times

Keay offers us a world turned upside down; but also a world made real. Thats a remarkable achievement Adrian Tinniswood, Sunday Telegraph *****

Readers both expert and casual will revel in seeing this period brought to noisy, brash, colourful [life] by the skilled pen of a natural storyteller Aspects of History

Author Bio

Born in the West Highlands of Scotland, Anna was educated at Oban High School in Argyll and Bedales in Hampshire. She read history at Magdalen College, Oxford and took her PhD at the University of London. From 1996 to 2002 Anna worked as a curator for Historic Royal Palaces, which looks after the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace, Kew Palace and the Banqueting House in Whitehall. From 2002 until 2012 she was Properties Presentation Director of English Heritage, responsible for curating and presenting to the public 420 historic sites across England, from Stonehenge to Kenwood House. She is now Director of The Landmark Trust.