Kathryn Warner’s account of the Black Death is a compelling and often upsetting read. She brings the unimaginable reality onto stark life with reference to real families and the tragedies they suffered. Given that there are very few written records of the time, I can only imagine that her research has been both challenging and extensive. I’ve enjoyed her approach to this heartbreaking story. The scene is initially set pre plague in the first months of 1348. Edward III is monarch and Britain is at war with France. Chaucer was a child and the detail about a select few individuals gives real texture to the setting. The rest of the book considers the plague county by county with family stories recounted in convincing and, I’m sure, authentic detail. As awful as it was, it’s the first time I’ve read a book about the Black Death that really hits home. I felt as if I got to know some of those affected and shared their distress and sense of fear as the inevitable hit. It’s an incredible slice of social history, not only about the pestilence, but about England through those years and the structural set up of the counties. There are numerous photos at the end of the narrative, a comprehensive index with so many family names, I’d think this is of interest to those involved in family history. The bibliography of primary and secondary sources gives much further reading. A compelling and remarkable read and my thanks to the publisher and Netgalley fir an early review copy.