* Britain has not been successfully invaded since 1066; nor, in nearly 1,000 years, has it known a true revolution - one that brings radical, systemic and enduring change. The contrast with her European neighbours - with France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece and Russia - is dramatic. All have been convulsed by external warfare, revolution and civil war - all have experienced fundamental change to their ruling elites or their social and economic structures.
* In The Road Not Taken Frank McLynn investigates the seven occasions when England came closest to revolution: the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, the Jack Cade rising of 1450, the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536, the English Civil War of the 1640s, the Jacobite Rising of 1745-6, the Chartist Movement of 1838-48 and the General Strike of 1926.
* Mixes narrative and analysis, vividly recreating each episode and providing compelling explanations of why social turbulence stopped short of revolution.
* McLynn's powerful narrative explores massive themes of social, religious and political change over seven centuries of British history, and shows them at certain moments bursting forth to threaten the existing order.
* Why, at these dramatic turning-points, did history finally fail to turn? The actions of individuals at key moments had a huge influence, as he shows, but were there underlying currents in our history which have allowed Britain to evade the revolutions which engulfed its neighbours? This is the deeper question which Frank McLynn explores in this fascinating book.
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Authoritative and fascinating account… McLynn has delivered a scholarly and hugely informative book - Scotsman
McLynn is an astonishingly prolific historian. His books are always elegantly written, highly opinionated and enormously enjoyable, and this one…is among his best - Sunday Times
Has anybody done more – done as much – as Frank McLynn in writing intelligent, combative, thoroughly researched and thoroughly readable history? Personalities essential to the narrative appear brilliantly…we have in this quite outstanding book an arguable-with, character-rich account of longed-for ends grimly - Independent
One of our most readable historians, McLynn has produced another tidy volume rich with intelligent wrangling - Daily Express
McLynn is a hugely knowledgeable guide to these great events, and is unfailingly thought-provoking - Mail on Sunday
McLynn’s book is thoroughly entertaining. It provides vivid accounts of a series of perilous periods in British history - The Herald
Renowned historian Frank Mclynn takes a refreshing look at Britain’s relationship with revolution… In this, a genuinely fantastic marriage of historical analysis and literary flair, one becomes impressed in an enthralling narrative of the cause and effects of change - Press Association
Fascinating and always enjoyable narrative - Spectator
Refreshing…intelligent, provocative book - Literary Review
An impressively researched and thorough going work - The Bookbag
A refreshing look at Britain’s relationship with revolution - Scotsman
Frank McLynn is a prolific historian. His books are always elegantly written and enjoyable. And this one... Is among his finest - Catholic Herald
Frank McLynn is a highly regarded historian, who specializes in biographies and military history. He has written over 20 books, including critically acclaimed biographies of Napoleon and Richard the Lionheart. Other books include 1066, Stanley, 1759, and Marcus Aurelius. He is a graduate of Wadham College, Oxford, and London University, where he obtained his doctorate.
